TimeSTAMP (Time – Specific Tag for the Age Measurement of Proteins) is a technique invented by Michael Z. Lin at the

Roger Tsien Roger Yonchien Tsien (pronounced , "'' CHEN''"'';'' February 1, 1952 – August 24, 2016) was an American biochemist. He was a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...

lab at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

in 2008. It is a technique that can specifically label the newly synthesized copies of the genetically tagged

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

Principle of the TimeSTAMP technique

The TimeSTAMP technique for labelling newly synthesized proteins of interest and is based on drug–dependent preservation of

epitope An epitope, also known as antigenic determinant, is the part of an antigen that is recognized by the immune system, specifically by antibodies, B cells, or T cells. The epitope is the specific piece of the antigen to which an antibody binds. The p ...

tags A simple diagram showing the strategy for drug–dependent epitope tagging of newly synthesized proteins can be found here

In this technique, a tag that is present on all the proteins that are synthesized after the one-time administration of a small molecule drug. To achieve this goal, specific

protease A protease (also called a peptidase, proteinase, or proteolytic enzyme) is an enzyme that catalyzes (increases reaction rate or "speeds up") proteolysis, breaking down proteins into smaller polypeptides or single amino acids, and spurring the ...

activity is incorporated to confer self–removing behaviour onto an epitope tag. Then, a corresponding protease inhibitor is used in order to block the removal of the tag. As a result, only those proteins synthesized after the application of inhibitor would be tagged. A subsequent variant of TimeSTAMP allows for drug-dependent preservation of fluorescent protein tags.

Application of TimeSTAMP technique

As TimeSTAMP technique can achieve temporally controlled labelling of newly synthesized proteins of interest even in thick tissues or intact animals and provide a sensitive, specific detection, the distribution of newly synthesized protein in a living animal can be studied

References

External links

Tsien Lab website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Timestamp Protein Labelling Protein methods