WHAT DO WE DO?
In the Supramolecular Sensors Stream, students take on the challenge of constructing differential array sensors that can be ultimately applied to many fields such as homeland security, food industry, environmental science, and clinical diagnostics. The current projects are the construction of peptide-based sensor arrays that can be used to differentiate two types of samples, wine samples and protein kinases. We use differential sensing (DS) methods to detect and classify these biological analytes of interest. The DS method uses a library of cross-reactive sensors that bind differently to each of the target molecules in mixtures. For instance, the wine sensors work by binding to the tannins present in wine using the indicator displacement assay as optical protocol. The differential sensing method pioneered by Dr. Eric Anslyn has been widely used for the detection of biomolecules. The kinase biosensors work via a fluorescence-enhanced mechanism displayed when the biosensor is recognized by the protein kinase
WHY STUDY WINE?
Wine is the perfect analyte to test the capability of differential sensors constructed due to the wine's chemical diversity and complexity. Compounds present in wine are metabolites coming not only from the grape but also from the yeast that act upon the grape, the environmental factors to which the growing grapes were exposed to, and even the oak barrels where the wine was aged. Wine is a great test sample for the results of the stream to extend to applications in disease diagnostics via metabolomic studies. Furthermore, there will be a direct impact of this study on the wine industry.
There are about 500 different kinases in the Human Kinome. Particularly, the family of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) has been involved in the development of 30% of all known cancers. The development of novel detection methods can allow us to understand the activation/inhibition of specific kinase pathways. MAPKs are very challenging proteins to recognize due to their similar structure. The use of differential sensing techniques can be suitable for the detection and classification of these proteins not only in healthy cells, but also in cancerous cells. This research has the potential to impact targeted kinase therapies in the diagnosis of early-onset cancer.
