Talk given by Edward Lemke (Mainz, Germany) as part of the International GCE Webinar series. Live talk given on March 20th, 2025.
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) account for up to 30% of the eukaryotic proteome. Their polymer-like nature makes them very hard to study by conventional approaches. I will show in my talk how we combine modern synthetic and chemical biology tools with advanced biophysical measurements to develop a path toward studying the protein conformations of IDPs in situ. Since site-specific labeling of proteins with small but highly photostable fluorescent dyes inside cells remains the major bottleneck for directly studying protein dynamics in the cellular interior, we have now developed a semi-genetic strategy based on novel artificial amino acids that are easily and site-specifically introduced into any protein by the natural machinery of the living cell via a newly developed thin-film synthetic organelle.