Institute of Innovative Research, 
Tokyo Institute of Technology.

2019.07.22

Press Release

It’s not an antibody, it’s a frankenbody: A new tool for live-cell imaging

Scientists at Colorado State University (CSU) and Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have developed a new powerful tool called a “frankenbody”, for imaging protein dynamics in living cells. Just as Frankenstein’s monster is stitched together from different limbs, the frankenbody was created by taking the binding regions of a normal antibody, the “sticky parts,” and grafting them onto a different scaffold that remains stable in live cells but retains the specificity of the antibody.