International Symposium on LifeChips 2006

Live Approach in Life Science & Drug Discovery: A Magnetic Nanoprobe Technology for Imaging Molecular Interactions Inside Living Human Cells
We present a novel technology, “magnetism-based interaction capture (MAGIC)”, for molecular target identification based on induced movement of superparamagnetic nanoparticles inside living cells. Transducible fusogenic peptide led to efficient intracellular uptake of superparamagnetic nanoparticles coated with a small molecule of interest. These nanoprobes captured the small molecule’s labeled target protein and were translocated in a direction specified by an external magnetic field. Implementation of the MAGIC principle to genome-wide expression screening successfully identified the protein targets of a drug. Furthermore, we demonstrate that MAGIC technology can be used to monitor signal-dependent modification and multiple interactions of proteins. Our nanotechnology will be useful for probing a variety of molecular (e.g. drug-protein & protein-protein) interactions in single live cells. Indeed we have succeeded in screening and identifying small molecules (drug hits) and their target proteins which specifically affect human cell aging and oncogenic processes.

Biography
Tae Kook Kim is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), where he is a member of the Biomedical Research Center and NanoResearch Center. He is also a Director of Molecular Medicine Imaging Center at Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB). Prior to moving to Korea, he was a faculty member of Harvard Medical School, Harvard Cancer Center-Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and Harvard Institute of Chemistry and Cell Biology, with a joint appointment at Seoul National University (1998-2002). He received his Ph.D. on gene regulation mechanisms with Robert Roeder from Rockefeller University (1990-1994). He continued his postdoctoral works on human cell cycle and signaling mechanisms as a Damon Runyon Fellow in the laboratories of David Beach and Tom Maniatis at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Harvard University (1994-1997). His current research interests include the challenge of developing innovative platform technologies to understanding and modulating dynamic molecular interaction networks inside living human cells for the live approach in life science and drug discovery.