Monitoring Molecular Interactions—For the first time, Einstein researchers led by Dr. Robert Singer have observed—in single living cells and in real time—the crucially important interactions that occur between messenger RNA molecules (mRNAs) and proteins that bind to them. These binding proteins help determine where in a cell’s cytoplasm the mRNAs will be translated into proteins. The researchers developed a technology sensitive enough to detect a single protein bound to a single mRNA molecule. Using two types of mouse cell—fibroblasts and neurons—they studied protein binding to mRNA molecules that code for beta actin protein. The researchers showed that one of these binding proteins attachED to beta actin mRNA and acted to prevent its translation until it was needed, far from the nucleus. Dr. Singer was senior author of the study, which published in the July 2 online edition of Cell. He is professor and co-chair of anatomy and structural biology and co-director of the Gruss Lipper Biophotonics Center.
Posted on: Monday, July 27, 2015