New method uses fluorescence to identify disease-causing forms of proteins
(PHYSorg.com Chemistry)

A new method uses fluorescence to detect potentially disease-causing forms of proteins as they unravel due to stress or mutations. A team of researchers from Penn State and the University of Washington reengineered a fluorescent compound and developed a method to simultaneously light up two different proteins as they misfold and aggregate inside a living cell, highlighting forms that likely play a role in several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer`s and Parkinson`s. Two recent papers describing the method appear online in ChemBioChem and the Journal of the American Chemical Society.