Name of Intellectual Property: Reconstituted fluorescent proteins for combinatorial marking of cells and cell structures

Submitted by: Brendan Rauw, Portfolio Director, Science and Technology Ventures, Columbia University, New York, NY

Inventor Information: Martin Chalfie, PhD, is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. He shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Osamu Shimomura and Roger Y. Tsien “for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP.” He holds a PhD in neurobiology from Harvard University.

Non-Confidential Technology Summary: Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) and its derivatives are used as reporters because they readily form active fusion proteins, can be safely expressed in cells and are easily visualized by standard microscopic techniques. This invention details the use of a “split” GFP, where the original GFP molecule is expressed as two separate polypeptides. When brought into close proximity, the polypeptides fold together, reconstituting the original protein and its fluorescent properties. The key to this invention is the low rate of spontaneous reconstitution; the polypeptides will not fluoresce without a molecular “zipper” to associate them together. This “zipper” is modular since binding domain from protein-protein, protein-small molecule or protein-nucleic acid interactions can be used to reconstitute the fluorescent protein.

Why is this important or intriguing? Current applications of fluorescent proteins, especially high throughput screens used in drug discovery, are limited in spatial and temporal resolution by the number of flourophores. This invention adds finer grain control to the expression of fluorescent molecules, dramatically improving assays.  Also, the polypeptides can be introduced into animal models using standard transgenic techniques, providing a direct path for in vivo target validation.

Synopsis of Business Opportunity: This technology is available for non-exclusive licensing and sponsored research support.

Ownership: This intellectual property is assigned to The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York.

Patent Status: Patent Pending (US 2007/0256147 A1, WO/2005/118790)

Key Commercialization Contact

Jullian G. Jones, Ph.D., J.D.
Science and Technology Ventures
Columbia University
80 Claremont Avenue
New York, NY 10027-5712
USA

Email: techtransfer@columbia.edu
Phone: 212.851.0258

Posted June 25th, 2009 under Hot IP, Molecular Biology