We leverage what’s available, and invent what’s not

Single Molecule Tracking (SMT) Technology

Protein activity is mediated by transient interactions between a protein molecule and other components of the cellular environment, including membranes, other proteins, DNA/RNA and small molecules. These transient interactions define the motion profile of a protein population. By precisely measuring these motions, we describe the activities and the functions of a protein.

Recognizing the need to visualize the dynamics of macromolecules within live cells, our team is building on Nobel Prize-winning super-resolution fluorescence microscopy tools (developed by Eikon co-founder Eric Betzig). Our Single Molecule Tracking (SMT) systems enable exquisitely precise measurement of the dynamic behavior of individual protein molecules in living cells, on a massive scale. Multiple individual proteins are fluorescently labeled within a cell, and hundreds of cells can be imaged in a single sample. By quantifying the movement of each individual protein molecule over time, we can build a profile of that protein’s population dynamics, both in its native state and in the presence of drug candidates, hormones or other stimuli. We can capture hundreds of thousands of protein trajectories in less than a second, and we typically analyze millions of experimental conditions each week.

Our analysis software provides quantifiable, multidimensional characterizations of the target proteins, revealing discrete subpopulations with different behaviors across unique measurements, such as diffusion rate, angular movement, processivity, on-/off-rates as well as residence times for small molecules binding to proteins. We can measure changes in these parameters in real time and can observe perturbations following introduction of a stimulus across millisecond time scales. We extract these data using proprietary bioinformatics tools and software analytics. These analyses inform the optimization of chemical matter for our preclinical programs.