Israeli scientists have developed a method of producing video footage of enzyme molecules at work. The pioneering method, made public in Nature Structural Biology, was hailed as the first of its kind, and a potentially important tool for biophysicists.
Until now, scientists studying the workings of ultra-microscopic forms have had to rely on the laboratory equivalents of still photos. Now, Prof. Irit Sagi and her team, of the Structural Biology Department of the Weizmann Institute, have developed a method to track and produce animated clips so fine that the scientists are able to see the movements of individual atoms within the molecule.
The complex enzyme process captured by the Weizmann team takes place in a tiny fraction of a second. To obtain the “live action” footage, Sagi and her team use a technique akin to stop-action photography, but on an infinitely smaller scale. They literally freeze the process at certain stages, using advanced methods of chemical analysis to determine the exact molecular layout at each stage. The most difficult part, says Sagi, was figuring out the correct time frames that would allow them to see each phase of enzyme activity clearly. She compares it to attempting to capture on film the swirling of syrup being mixed into cake batter - one has to gauge at what points individual stages of the process will be most visible.
“This method,” says Sagi, “represents more than a major breakthrough in the techniques used to understand enzyme activity. It changes the whole paradigm of drug formulation. Now we can precisely identify which parts of the molecule are the active regions (those which directly perform tasks), and the exact permutations of these molecular segments throughout the whole process. New, synthetic drugs can be designed to target specific actions or critical configurations.”
And Sagi’s team is doing just that for one enzyme family known to play a role in cancer metastasis.
Until now, scientists studying the workings of ultra-microscopic forms have had to rely on the laboratory equivalents of still photos. Now, Prof. Irit Sagi and her team, of the Structural Biology Department of the Weizmann Institute, have developed a method to track and produce animated clips so fine that the scientists are able to see the movements of individual atoms within the molecule.
The complex enzyme process captured by the Weizmann team takes place in a tiny fraction of a second. To obtain the “live action” footage, Sagi and her team use a technique akin to stop-action photography, but on an infinitely smaller scale. They literally freeze the process at certain stages, using advanced methods of chemical analysis to determine the exact molecular layout at each stage. The most difficult part, says Sagi, was figuring out the correct time frames that would allow them to see each phase of enzyme activity clearly. She compares it to attempting to capture on film the swirling of syrup being mixed into cake batter - one has to gauge at what points individual stages of the process will be most visible.
“This method,” says Sagi, “represents more than a major breakthrough in the techniques used to understand enzyme activity. It changes the whole paradigm of drug formulation. Now we can precisely identify which parts of the molecule are the active regions (those which directly perform tasks), and the exact permutations of these molecular segments throughout the whole process. New, synthetic drugs can be designed to target specific actions or critical configurations.”
And Sagi’s team is doing just that for one enzyme family known to play a role in cancer metastasis.