Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 25, 2026

12:20
Real-time Imaging of Single Engineered RNA Transcripts in Living Cells Using Ratiometric Bimolecular Beacons
Published on: August 6, 2014
A molecular peptide beacon for the ratiometric sensing of nucleic acids
Junchen Wu1, Ying Zou, Chunyan Li
1Institute for Organic Chemistry, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45117 Essen, Germany.
Journal of the American Chemical Society
|January 17, 2012
Abstract:
A pyrene-functionalized cationic oligopeptide 1 efficiently binds to double-stranded DNA, as shown by different spectrophotochemical studies. Upon binding, the conformation of 1 changes from a folded to an extended form, which leads to a distinct change in the fluorescence properties. Thus, 1 functions as a molecular peptide beacon, and as it is easily taken up by cells, 1 can also be used for imaging of nucleic acids within cells.

