Modular Synthetic Receptor System

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This year´s main project is the attempt to create an "artificial receptor-system", featuring extra- and intracellular modules as well as suitable transmembrane regions. The intracellular domaine of our receptor-device is build by halves of split reporter-proteins that can reassemble and will then produce readable output, e. g. fluorescence. Each one of these protein-halves is connected to its extracellular domaine by a single-span transmembrane-helix. The extracellular or detecting domaine consists of a protein or peptide with the ability to bind a certain molecule.
Now, if a system with two matching receptors is presented these molecules in a strict, pairwise spatial arrangement, the receptor-devices are brought together, the split reporter-protein reassembles inside the cell and the output can be detected. We employ so-called "Origami-DNA" to create the exactly defined molecule-patterns that are needed to activate our receptors.