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Chemical biology

Cutting out the middle man

Nature volume 442, pages 517–518 (2006)Cite this article

Wouldn't it be nice if you could control the function of any protein with one small molecule? Unlikely as it sounds, this could become possible through a crafty process known as protein splicing.

One of the most exciting things about chemical biology is its potential to develop new tools for probing cellular processes. Small 'drug-like' molecules that can diffuse into cells and quickly elicit a discernible response offer distinct advantages over genetics-based approaches for exploring the highly choreographed inner workings of a cell1. In particular, small molecules can allow cellular processes to be rapidly perturbed in a reversible and often tunable fashion, allowing the dynamic features to be teased out. But finding a small-molecule modulator that is specific for one protein is a formidable challenge; finding one molecule that could somehow modulate the function of any desired protein seems impossible. Yet in the Journal of the American Chemical Society2, Yuen et al. describe the results of a study, based on the pharmacological regulation of pro-tein splicing, that suggest this might not be a complete pipedream.

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Figure 1: Mechanism of protein splicing.

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  1. Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, 10021, New York, USA

    Tom W. Muir

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  1. Tom W. Muir
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Muir, T. Cutting out the middle man. Nature 442, 517–518 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/442517a

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