Editor’s
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Laura L. Kiessling University of Wisconsin, Madison BOARD OF EDITORS
Jennifer A. Doudna University of California, Berkeley
Kai Johnsson Ecole Polytechnique Fe´de´rale de Lausanne
Anna K. Mapp University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Michael A. Marletta University of California, Berkeley
Peter H. Seeberger Eidgeno¨ssische Technische Hochschule
James R. Williamson The Scripps Research Institute EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Carolyn R. Bertozzi University of California, Berkeley
Brian T. Chait Rockefeller University
Tim Clackson ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Jon C. Clardy Harvard Medical School
Benjamin F. Cravatt The Scripps Research Institute
Peter B. Dervan California Institute of Technology
Rebecca W. Heald University of California, Berkeley
Linda C. Hsieh-Wilson California Institute of Technology
Tony Hunter Salk Institute
Stephen C. Kowalczykowski University of California, Davis
Richard H. Kramer University of California, Berkeley
Thomas V. O’Halloran
LETTER Investigative Reporters
Journals and their readers depend on exploratory reporters to receive accurate information from inaccessible places. In general, the more inaccessible the place is, the higher the perceived value of the report. Similarly, life sciences depend increasingly on molecular reporters that provide us with information on biochemical activities at specific locations in cells or organisms. These reporters often reveal unexpected insights that will become fundamental for our understanding of biology. However, the majority of biochemical activities in living cells still cannot be visualized, and scientists have an insatiable hunger for reliable reporters of such activities. An additional degree of difficulty is that the faithfulness and accuracy of existing and future reporters, as with their human counterparts, must be critically monitored, and their results, if possible, independently confirmed. Chemical biologists have taken up this challenge and have provided the scientific community with reporters for various biochemical activities. Since its introduction, ACS Chemical Biology has become a platform for publishing innovative work in this field, and it should therefore not come as a surprise that all five original research articles in this issue report on the development of tools for the visualization of different biochemical activities. In independent articles by Yano et al. (1) and Los et al. (2), two new systems are described for the labeling of fusion proteins with synthetic probes in living cells. Although various approaches for such a protein labeling already exist, both methods present unique features that will permit them to become useful tools for functional proteomics. The manuscript by Nakajima et al. (3) introduces a highly sensitive fluorescence-based reporter to visualize brain-derived neurotrophic factor as it is secreted from hippocampal neurons. And finally, two independent papers published by Fan et al. (4) and Kim et al. (5) describe how through protein engineering wizardry, firefly and click beetle luciferases can be turned into luminescent reporters of the activities of a small ligand, of protein⫺protein interactions, or of enzymatic activities. The latter two manuscripts are noteworthy not only for the reporters introduced but also for laying out a path for the design of future luminescent reporters and for demonstrating how luminescent reporters can simultaneously detect multiple activities of a single ligand in one cell. Chemical biologists will surely continue to provide us with investigative reporters that deliver exciting news from distant places. Stay tuned.
Northwestern University
Hiroyuki Osada RIKEN
Anna M. Pyle Yale University
Ronald T. Raines University of Wisconsin, Madison
Charles Sawyers
Kai Johnsson Member, Board of Editors
University of California, Los Angeles
REFERENCES
Stuart L. Schreiber
1. Yano, Y., Yano, A., Oishi, S., Sugimoto, Y., Tsujimoto, G., Fujii, N., and Matsuzaki, K. (2008) Coiled-coil tag-probe system for quick labeling of membrane receptors in living cells, ACS Chem. Biol. 3, 341–345. 2. Los, G., Encell, L. P., McDougall, M. G., Hartzell, D. D., Karassina, N., Zimprich, C., Wood, M. G., Learish, R., Ohana, R. F., Urh, M., Simpson, D., Mendez, J., Zimmerman, K., Otto, P., Vidugiris, G., Zhu, J., Darzins, A., Klaubert, D. H., Bulleit, R. F., and Wood, K. V. (2008) HALOTAG: a novel protein labeling technology for cell imaging and protein analysis, ACS Chem. Biol. 3, 373–382. 3. Nakajima, T., Sato, M., Akaza, N., and Umezawa, Y. (2008) Cell-based fluorescent indicator to visualize brainderived neurotrophic factor secreted from living neurons, ACS Chem. Biol. 3, 352–358. 4. Fan, F., Binkowski, B. F., Butler, B. L., Stecha, P. F., Lewis, M. K., and Wood, K. V. (2008) Novel genetically encoded biosensors using firefly luciferase, ACS Chem. Biol. 3, 346–351. 5. Kim, S., Umezawa, Y., Kanno, K. A., and Tao, H. (2008) An integrated-molecule-format multicolor probe for monitoring multiple activities of a bioactive small molecule, ACS Chem. Biol. 3, 359–372.
Harvard University
Peter G. Schultz The Scripps Research Institute
Michael P. Sheetz Columbia University
H. Ulrich Stilz Sanofi-Aventis, Frankfurt
Christopher T. Walsh Harvard Medical School
10.1021/cb800134q CCC: $40.75 Published online June 20, 2008 © 2008 by American Chemical Society
www.acschemicalbiology.org
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