Light turns on caged enzyme

“An unnatural amino acid has given researchers a switch to turn on a specific enzyme with light. This tool will allow scientists to determine the timing of cellular signaling and identify which parts of a signaling network might be good drug targets. When organisms or cells receive signals from their surroundings, a cascade of enzymes known as kinases pass those signals along. These signaling cascades are complicated networks that can be hard to interpret in real time. Jason Chin and Arnaud Gautier from LMB, along with Alexander Deiters of North Carolina State University, may have found a way to make such interpretation easier.” More…