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FLUORESCENT PROTEINS

A blueprint for glow tag engineering

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In two seminal papers published 25 years ago, Phillips and Remington reported the structure of the green fluorescent protein (GFP). These studies provided a blueprint for the rational engineering of GFP, catalysing efforts that produced a large and growing collection of fluorescent proteins and indicators of cellular activity.

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Fig. 1: The discovery, structure, and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP).

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Lambert (Harvard Medical School) for sharing the yearly cumulative numbers of FPs discovered or engineered and N. Shaner (University of California, San Diego) for feedback on this News & Views.

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Correspondence to François St-Pierre.

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Lee, J., St-Pierre, F. A blueprint for glow tag engineering. Nat Rev Chem 6, 7–8 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-021-00351-9

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