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Crafting new cages

Nature Methods volume 3, pages 13–15 (2006)Cite this article

A new caging group based on the nitrodibenzofuran chromophore has been developed with improved photochemical properties for both ultraviolet and two-photon photolysis applications, providing a new tool for the rapid and efficient release of calcium ions for biological studies.

The precise regulation of biochemical activities within cells is essential to achieve desired biological outputs. Photoactivatable, or 'caged' molecules serve as powerful probes for investigating cellular signaling dynamics with pinpoint accuracy1. Because the intensity, duration, shape and direction of a light beam can be manipulated at the will of the researcher, photoactivation offers superb accuracy and flexibility in controlling cellular biochemistry with high spatiotemporal resolution. In this issue, Ellis-Davies and coworkers describe the development of a new caging group based on the nitrodibenzofuran (NDBF) chromophore2. They demonstrate the in vivo application of the NDBF group by linking it to a calcium chelator to generate a caged calcium compound offering several improvements over existing caged probes for studying calcium signaling dynamics.

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Figure 1: A schematic of the desired photochemical properties of caged compounds.

Katie Ris

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  1. the Departments of Cell Biology and of Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, 75390, Texas, USA

    Wen-Hong Li

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  1. Wen-Hong Li
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Li, WH. Crafting new cages. Nat Methods 3, 13–15 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth0106-13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth0106-13

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