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Updated: May 15, 2026

High-Throughput Cellular Profiling of Targeted Protein Degradation Compounds Using HiBiT CRISPR Cell Lines
Published on: November 9, 2020
Biomolecular Condensates as Protein Degradation Tools for Intracellular Targets
Yi Li1,2, Zhicheng Jin3, Sharif U Ahmed1
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
Abstract:
Targeted protein degradation harnesses endogenous cellular machinery to eliminate disease-causing proteins, yet achieving phenotype-specific degradation across diverse cell types remains challenging. Here we show that antibody-enriched biomolecular condensates formed by liquid-liquid phase separation function as intracellular protein degradation tools, combining cytosolic trafficking with direct proteasome recruitment for targeted substrate clearance. These nanoscale condensates incorporate a short proteasome-targeting motif into phase-separation precursors, preserve antibody activity, enable direct proteasome recruitment, and improve delivery uniformity. When loaded with a mutation-specific antibody, these condensates selectively degrade oncogenic KRAS G12V without affecting wild-type KRAS in heterozygous cells, and suppress tumor growth in a KRAS G12V xenograft model. This strategy provides a modular platform for intracellular protein degradation that can be readily adapted by exchanging antibodies, without requiring genetic modification of cellular system.
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