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14 Publications

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    02/24/24 | A series of spontaneously blinking dyes for super-resolution microscopy
    Katie L. Holland , Sarah E. Plutkis , Timothy A. Daugird , Abhishek Sau , Jonathan B. Grimm , Brian P. English , Qinsi Zheng , Sandeep Dave , Fariha Rahman , Liangqi Xie , Peng Dong , Ariana N. Tkachuk , Timothy A. Brown , Robert H. Singer , Zhe Liu , Catherine G. Galbraith , Siegfried M. Musser , Wesley R. Legant , Luke D. Lavis
    bioRxiv. 02/2024:. doi: 10.1101/2024.02.23.581625

    Spontaneously blinking fluorophores permit the detection and localization of individual molecules without reducing buffers or caging groups, thus simplifying single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM). The intrinsic blinking properties of such dyes are dictated by molecular structure and modulated by environment, which can limit utility. We report a series of tuned spontaneously blinking dyes with duty cycles that span two orders of magnitude, allowing facile SMLM in cells and dense biomolecular structures.

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    01/01/24 | Transforming chemigenetic bimolecular fluorescence complementation systems into chemical dimerizers using chemistry.
    Pratik Kumar , Alina Gutu , Amelia Waring , Timothy A. Brown , Luke D. Lavis , Alison G. Tebo
    bioRxiv. 2024 Jan 01:. doi: 10.1101/2023.12.30.573644

    Chemigenetic tags are versatile labels for fluorescence microscopy that combine some of the advantages of genetically encoded tags with small molecule fluorophores. The Fluorescence Activating and absorbance Shifting Tags (FASTs) bind a series of highly fluorogenic and cell-permeable chromophores. Furthermore, FASTs can be used in complementation-based systems for detecting or inducing protein-protein interactions, depending on the exact FAST protein variant chosen. In this study, we systematically explore substitution patterns on FAST fluorogens and generate a series of fluorogens that bind to FAST variants, thereby activating their fluorescence. This effort led to the discovery of a novel fluorogen with superior properties, as well as a fluorogen that transforms splitFAST systems into a fluorogenic dimerizer, eliminating the need for additional protein engineering.

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    10/16/23 | Optimized Red-Absorbing Dyes for Imaging and Sensing
    Grimm JB, Tkachuk AN, Patel R, Hennigan ST, Gutu A, Dong P, Gandin V, Osowski AM, Holland KL, Liu ZJ, Brown TA, Lavis LD
    Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2023 Oct 16:. doi: 10.1021/jacs.3c0527310.1021/jacs.3c05273

    Rhodamine dyes are excellent scaffolds for developing a broad range of fluorescent probes. A key property of rhodamines is their equilibrium between a colorless lactone and fluorescent zwitterion. Tuning the lactone–zwitterion equilibrium constant (KL–Z) can optimize dye properties for specific biological applications. Here, we use known and novel organic chemistry to prepare a comprehensive collection of rhodamine dyes to elucidate the structure–activity relationships that govern KL–Z. We discovered that the auxochrome substituent strongly affects the lactone–zwitterion equilibrium, providing a roadmap for the rational design of improved rhodamine dyes. Electron-donating auxochromes, such as julolidine, work in tandem with fluorinated pendant phenyl rings to yield bright, red-shifted fluorophores for live-cell single-particle tracking (SPT) and multicolor imaging. The N-aryl auxochrome combined with fluorination yields red-shifted Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) quencher dyes useful for creating a new semisynthetic indicator to sense cAMP using fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). Together, this work expands the synthetic methods available for rhodamine synthesis, generates new reagents for advanced fluorescence imaging experiments, and describes structure–activity relationships that will guide the design of future probes.

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    11/13/22 | Brain-wide measurement of protein turnover with high spatial and temporal resolution
    Boaz Mohar , Jonathan B. Grimm , Ronak Patel , Timothy A. Brown , Paul Tillberg , Luke D. Lavis , Nelson Spruston , Karel Svoboda
    bioRxiv. 2022 Nov 13:. doi: 10.1101/2022.11.12.516226

    Cells regulate function by synthesizing and degrading proteins. This turnover ranges from minutes to weeks, as it varies across proteins, cellular compartments, cell types, and tissues. Current methods for tracking protein turnover lack the spatial and temporal resolution needed to investigate these processes, especially in the intact brain, which presents unique challenges. We describe a pulse-chase method (DELTA) for measuring protein turnover with high spatial and temporal resolution throughout the body, including the brain. DELTA relies on rapid covalent capture by HaloTag of fluorophores that were optimized for bioavailability in vivo. The nuclear protein MeCP2 showed brain region- and cell type-specific turnover. The synaptic protein PSD95 was destabilized in specific brain regions by behavioral enrichment. A novel variant of expansion microscopy further facilitated turnover measurements at individual synapses. DELTA enables studies of adaptive and maladaptive plasticity in brain-wide neural circuits.

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    06/15/22 | 2,7-Diaminobenzopyrylium Dyes Are Live-Cell Mitochondrial Stains2,7-Diaminobenzopyrylium Dyes Are Live-Cell Mitochondrial Stains
    Banala S, Tkachuk AN, Patel R, Kumar P, Brown TA, Lavis LD
    ACS Bio & Med Chem Au. 2022 Jun 15;2(3):307-12. doi: 10.1021/acsbiomedchemau.1c00068

    Small-molecule fluorescent stains enable the imaging of cellular structures without the need for genetic manipulation. Here, we introduce 2,7-diaminobenzopyrylium (DAB) dyes as live-cell mitochondrial stains excited with violet light. This amalgam of the coumarin and rhodamine fluorophore structures yields dyes with high photostability and tunable spectral properties.

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    09/01/21 | Direct detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA using high-contrast pH-sensitive dyes.
    Timothy A. Brown , Katherine S. Schaefer , Arthur Tsang , Hyun Ah Yi , Jonathan B. Grimm , Andrew L. Lemire , Fadi M. Jradi , Charles Kim , Kevin McGowan , Kimberly Ritola , Derek T. Armstrong , Heba H. Mostafa , Wyatt Korff , Ronald D. Vale , Luke D. Lavis
    Journal of Biomolecular Techniques. 2021 Sep 01;32(3):121-133. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.26.20248878

    The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on health, healthcare infrastructure, social structure, and economics. One of the limiting factors in containing the spread of this virus has been the lack of widespread availability of fast, inexpensive, and reliable methods for testing of individuals. Frequent screening for infected and often asymptomatic people is a cornerstone of pandemic management plans. Here, we introduce two pH sensitive ‘LAMPshade’ dyes as novel readouts in an isothermal RT- LAMP amplification assay for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. The resulting JaneliaLAMP (jLAMP) assay is robust, simple, inexpensive, has low technical requirements and we describe its use and performance in direct testing of contrived and clinical samples without RNA extraction.

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    05/24/21 | A general method to improve fluorophores using deuterated auxochromes.
    Grimm JB, Xie L, Casler JC, Patel R, Tkachuk AN, Falco N, Choi H, Lippincott-Schwartz J, Brown TA, Glick BS, Liu Z, Lavis LD
    JACS Au. 2021 May 24;1(5):690-6. doi: 10.1021/jacsau.1c00006

    Fluorescence microscopy relies on dyes that absorb and then emit photons. In addition to fluorescence, fluorophores can undergo photochemical processes that decrease quantum yield or result in spectral shifts and irreversible photobleaching. Chemical strategies that suppress these undesirable pathways—thereby increasing the brightness and photostability of fluorophores—are crucial for advancing the frontier of bioimaging. Here, we describe a general method to improve small-molecule fluorophores by incorporating deuterium into the alkylamino auxochromes of rhodamines and other dyes. This strategy increases fluorescence quantum yield, inhibits photochemically induced spectral shifts, and slows irreparable photobleaching, yielding next-generation labels with improved performance in cellular imaging experiments.

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    08/20/20 | Rational design of bioavailable photosensitizers for manipulation and imaging of biological systems.
    Binns TC, Ayala AX, Grimm JB, Tkachuk AN, Castillon GA, Phan S, Zhang L, Brown TA, Liu Z, Adams SR, Ellisman MH, Koyama M, Lavis LD
    Cell Chemical Biology. 2020 Aug 20;27(8):1063-72. doi: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2020.07.001

    Light-mediated chemical reactions are powerful methods for manipulating and interrogating biological systems. Photosensitizers, compounds that generate reactive oxygen species upon excitation with light, can be utilized for numerous biological experiments, but the repertoire of bioavailable photosensitizers is limited. Here, we describe the synthesis, characterization, and utility of two photosensitizers based upon the widely used rhodamine scaffold and demonstrate their efficacy for chromophore-assisted light inactivation, cell ablation in culture and in vivo, and photopolymerization of diaminobenzidine for electron microscopy. These chemical tools will facilitate a broad range of applications spanning from targeted destruction of proteins to high-resolution imaging.

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    07/27/20 | A general method to optimize and functionalize red-shifted rhodamine dyes.
    Grimm JB, Tkachuk AN, Xie L, Choi H, Mohar B, Falco N, Schaefer K, Patel R, Zheng Q, Liu Z, Lippincott-Schwartz J, Brown TA, Lavis LD
    Nature Methods. 2020 Jul 27:. doi: 10.1038/s41592-020-0909-6

    Expanding the palette of fluorescent dyes is vital to push the frontier of biological imaging. Although rhodamine dyes remain the premier type of small-molecule fluorophore owing to their bioavailability and brightness, variants excited with far-red or near-infrared light suffer from poor performance due to their propensity to adopt a lipophilic, nonfluorescent form. We report a framework for rationalizing rhodamine behavior in biological environments and a general chemical modification for rhodamines that optimizes long-wavelength variants and enables facile functionalization with different chemical groups. This strategy yields red-shifted 'Janelia Fluor' (JF) dyes useful for biological imaging experiments in cells and in vivo.

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    11/01/18 | Stability, affinity and chromatic variants of the glutamate sensor iGluSnFR.
    Marvin JS, Scholl B, Wilson DE, Podgorski K, Kazemipour A, Mueller JA, Schoch-McGovern S, Wang SS, Quiroz FJ, Rebola N, Bao H, Little JP, Tkachuk AN, Hantman AW, Chapman ER, Dietrich D, DiGregorio DA, Fitzpatrick D, Looger LL
    Nature Methods. 2018 Nov;15(11):9386-9. doi: 10.1038/s41592-018-0171-3

    Single-wavelength fluorescent reporters allow visualization of specific neurotransmitters with high spatial and temporal resolution. We report variants of intensity-based glutamate-sensing fluorescent reporter (iGluSnFR) that are functionally brighter; detect submicromolar to millimolar amounts of glutamate; and have blue, cyan, green, or yellow emission profiles. These variants could be imaged in vivo in cases where original iGluSnFR was too dim, resolved glutamate transients in dendritic spines and axonal boutons, and allowed imaging at kilohertz rates.

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