Methods to Evaluate and Perturb the Activity of the Human Proteasome with Small Molecules

The degradation of proteins is an essential cellular process. The proteasome, a multi-catalytic enzyme, is mainly responsible for degrading proteins that are no longer required by the cell. My lab has focused on the development of activity probes that can monitor real-time proteasome activity biochemically and in live cells. These probes can be applied in variety of analytical methods including confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, and fluorescent plate readers.