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Updated: May 21, 2026

Using Synthetic Biology to Engineer Living Cells That Interface with Programmable Materials
Published on: March 9, 2017
Inducible biosynthetic nanoscaffolds as recruitment platforms for detecting molecular target interactions inside
Sangkyu Lee1, Jae-Seok Ha, Seung-Goo Lee
1Department of Biological Sciences, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea.
Abstract:
We present a novel phenotypic readout using inducible, biosynthetic nanoscaffolds to directly visualize dynamic molecular interactions within living cells at the single-cell level with high sensitivity and selectivity. Labeled ferritin is used to form biological nanoparticles inside cells. Specific supramolecular assembly of ferritin-derived nanoparticles induces highly clustered nanoscaffolds. These inducible biosynthetic nanoscaffolds are used as the artificial recruitment/redistribution platform for monitoring interactions of a small molecule with its target protein(s) inside living cells.

