Inducible Biosynthetic Nanoscaffolds as Recruitment Platforms for Detecting Molecular Target Interactions inside Living Cells

Abstract

We present a novel phenotypic readout using inducible, biosynthetic nanoscaffolds to directly visualize dynamic molecular interactions within living cells at the single-cell level with high sensitivity and selectivity. Labeled ferritin is used to form biological nanoparticles inside cells. Specific supramolecular assembly of ferritin-derived nanoparticles induces highly clustered nanoscaffolds. These inducible biosynthetic nanoscaffolds are used as the artificial recruitment/redistribution platform for monitoring interactions of a small molecule with its target protein(s) inside living cells.