[Spotlight seminar] – Designing brighter dyes for advanced fluorescence microscopy and beyond
September 10, 2024 @ 15:15 – 16:00 CEST
Dr. Luke D. Lavis, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA
Biography
Luke D. Lavis received his B.S. in Chemistry from Oregon State University in 2000 and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2008. Circumventing a traditional postdoc, he than began his independent career as a Group Leader at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus, and was promoted to Senior Group Leader and Head of Molecular Tools and Imaging in 2017. His research focuses on designing small-molecule tools for imaging, leading to the development of the widely used Janelia Fluor® dyes and the founding of Eikon Therapeutics in 2019.
Abstract
Specific labeling of biomolecules with bright, photostable fluorophores is the keystone of fluorescence microscopy. An established method to label cellular components utilizes genetically encoded self-labeling tags, which enable the attachment of chemical fluorophores to specific proteins inside living cells. For the last decade, our laboratory has focused on the development of improved fluorophores for use in living systems. We discovered a simple structural modification to classic fluorophores—incorporation of a four-membered azetidine ring—that substantially improves quantum efficiency and photostability. This strategy is generalizable to fluorophores from different structural classes and has yielded a palette of optimized chemical dyes for use in advanced microscopy experiments ranging from single-molecule tracking in individual cells to population voltage imaging in vivo.
Host: Simon Elsässer, KI, simon.elsasser@scilifelab.se
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