IISER Bhopal Introduces Method for Protein Chemical Tagging, Facilitating Easier Drug Discovery

Researchers at IISER Bhopal have developed a method for affixing chemical labels to proteins. This innovative approach enables the attachment of essential chemical groups to precise locations on a protein, while preserving the protein's functionality. Check details here 

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal (IISER Bhopal) researchers have developed a method called 'BHoPAL' that allows for the attachment of chemical tags to proteins, a crucial step in drug development. This technique enables the addition of required chemical groups to precise locations on a protein, without compromising the protein's functionality.

This technology simplifies attaching chemical agents to proteins, a previously challenging task, and shows promise for disease diagnosis, cellular imaging, drug development, and exploring molecular drug-target interactions. This technology is called ‘Baylis Hillman orchestrated Protein Aminothiol Labelling’ (BHoPAL) which efficiently tags chemicals to proteins without compromising their function.

The research was led by Dr. Dimpy Kalia, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, IISER Bhopal who supervised her PhD students, Mudassar H Mir, Sangeeta Parmar, and Chhaya Singh on this project. Their findings have been published in journal Nature Communications: (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-45124-2).

Importance of Process 

1. Attaching proteins to fluorescent chemical tags for their visualization inside cells enabling studies focused on understanding how they perform cellular functions.

2. Linking drugs to antibody proteins for selective drug delivery to diseased cells such as cancerous cells preventing undesirable side-effects of these drugs.

Elaborating on the objectives of this research, Dr. Dimpy Kalia, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, IISER Bhopal, said, “Proteins are cellular entities that play crucial roles in all cellular functions. Protein dysfunction results in major life-threatening diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, etc. Hence, developing effective approaches to study proteins in cells is crucial for developing therapeutic approaches targeting them.”

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