Light-Activated Molecules Stop Apoptosis at the Flip of a Switch

A new inhibitor gives researchers the ability to control programmed cell death in cultured human T cells.

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Scientists know a lot about apoptosis, from its molecular control to pathways that stop the cell death process in its tracks, but being able to control when and where it occurs would help researchers glean more details about its role in development. To that end, chemical biologist Steven Verhelst of KU Leuven in Belgium and his PhD student Suravi Chakrabarty decided to use a technique called photocaging to make an inhibitor of caspases, enzymes involved in apoptosis, that can be controlled by light.

For a small molecule to effectively inhibit a caspase, it needs a negative charge in just the right spot to fit into a positively charged pocket of the enzyme. Verhelst and Chakrabarty decided to develop a molecule that had a photocage, a chemical group that sat on top of that negative charge and prevented the inhibitor from binding and stopping the caspases from ...

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Meet the Author

  • Jef Akst

    Jef Akst was managing editor of The Scientist, where she started as an intern in 2009 after receiving a master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses.

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