title: Development and Application of Functionalized Protein Binders in Multicellular Organisms.
abstract: Protein-protein interactions are crucial for almost all biological processes. Studying such interactions in their native environment is critical but not easy to perform. Recently developed genetically encoded protein binders were shown to function inside living cells. These molecules offer a new, direct way to assess protein function, distribution and dynamics in vivo. A widely used protein binder scaffold are the so-called nanobodies, which are derived from the variable domain of camelid heavy-chain antibodies. Another commonly used scaffold, the DARPins, is based on Ankyrin repeats. In this review, we highlight how these binders can be functionalized in order to study proteins in vivo during the development of multicellular organisms. It is to be anticipated that many more applications for such synthetic protein binders will be developed in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bieli
authors.affiliation: Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Alborelli
authors.affiliation: Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Harmansa
authors.affiliation: Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Matsuda
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Caussinus
authors.affiliation: Biozentrum, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. Electronic address: markus.affolter@unibas.ch.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Affolter
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011485:Protein Binding; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins
keywords: DARPins; Drosophila; mouse; nanobodies; protein manipulation; zebrafish