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Chemists have reported the creation of new fluorescent dyes that can be used in cells, tissues, and animals.
The scientists found that swapping out specific chemical building blocks in fluorescent molecules called rhodamines can generate dyes of nearly every color.
Such an expanded palette of dyes could help researchers better illuminate the inner workings of cells, said Luke Lavis, PhD, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.
Dr Lavis and his colleagues used their new dyes to light up cell nuclei, label living brain tissue from fruit fly larvae, and highlight visual cortex neurons in mice that had tiny glass windows fitted into their skulls.
The team detailed their work in Nature Methods.
Dr Lavis noted that scientists used to concoct different dyes mostly by trial and error.
“Now, we’ve figured out the rules, and we can make almost any color,” he said.
Dr Lavis’s team focused their research on rhodamines because they’re especially bright and cell-permeable.
Chemists had been working with rhodamines for more than 100 years but created only a few dozen colors. Most were similar shades ranging from green to orange.
That’s because, until recently, making new rhodamines wasn’t easy. Scientists still used techniques from the earliest days of chemistry, boiling chemical ingredients in sulfuric acid. This forces the molecules to link together in a condensation reaction.
Mixing in different building blocks could yield new and unusual dyes, but ingredients had to be tough enough to survive the boiling acid bath. This didn’t leave a lot of options.
In 2011, Dr Lavis’s team developed a new way to tinker with rhodamines’ structure, under milder conditions. Using a reaction sparked by the metal palladium, the scientists could skip the acid step and construct dyes with more complicated building blocks than had been used before.
Four years later, the team revealed the Janelia Fluor dyes. The secret behind these dyes is a tiny, square-shaped appendage called an azetidine ring.
The scientists found that incorporating 4-membered azetidine rings into classic fluorophore structures elicited “substantial increases in brightness and photostability.” In fact, the Janelia Fluor dyes are up to 50 times brighter than other dyes.
Now, Dr Lavis’s group has figured out how to fine-tune their fluorescent dyes by tweaking rhodamines’ structure even further. The team showed that incorporating 3-substituted azetidine groups allowed them to tune spectral and chemical properties with “unprecedented precision.”
The dyes can be synthesized in a single step with inexpensive ingredients. The low cost has allowed Dr Lavis and his colleagues to share their work, shipping thousands of vials to hundreds of labs around the world. 
Chemists have reported the creation of new fluorescent dyes that can be used in cells, tissues, and animals.
The scientists found that swapping out specific chemical building blocks in fluorescent molecules called rhodamines can generate dyes of nearly every color.
Such an expanded palette of dyes could help researchers better illuminate the inner workings of cells, said Luke Lavis, PhD, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.
Dr Lavis and his colleagues used their new dyes to light up cell nuclei, label living brain tissue from fruit fly larvae, and highlight visual cortex neurons in mice that had tiny glass windows fitted into their skulls.
The team detailed their work in Nature Methods.
Dr Lavis noted that scientists used to concoct different dyes mostly by trial and error.
“Now, we’ve figured out the rules, and we can make almost any color,” he said.
Dr Lavis’s team focused their research on rhodamines because they’re especially bright and cell-permeable.
Chemists had been working with rhodamines for more than 100 years but created only a few dozen colors. Most were similar shades ranging from green to orange.
That’s because, until recently, making new rhodamines wasn’t easy. Scientists still used techniques from the earliest days of chemistry, boiling chemical ingredients in sulfuric acid. This forces the molecules to link together in a condensation reaction.
Mixing in different building blocks could yield new and unusual dyes, but ingredients had to be tough enough to survive the boiling acid bath. This didn’t leave a lot of options.
In 2011, Dr Lavis’s team developed a new way to tinker with rhodamines’ structure, under milder conditions. Using a reaction sparked by the metal palladium, the scientists could skip the acid step and construct dyes with more complicated building blocks than had been used before.
Four years later, the team revealed the Janelia Fluor dyes. The secret behind these dyes is a tiny, square-shaped appendage called an azetidine ring.
The scientists found that incorporating 4-membered azetidine rings into classic fluorophore structures elicited “substantial increases in brightness and photostability.” In fact, the Janelia Fluor dyes are up to 50 times brighter than other dyes.
Now, Dr Lavis’s group has figured out how to fine-tune their fluorescent dyes by tweaking rhodamines’ structure even further. The team showed that incorporating 3-substituted azetidine groups allowed them to tune spectral and chemical properties with “unprecedented precision.”
The dyes can be synthesized in a single step with inexpensive ingredients. The low cost has allowed Dr Lavis and his colleagues to share their work, shipping thousands of vials to hundreds of labs around the world.
Chemists have reported the creation of new fluorescent dyes that can be used in cells, tissues, and animals.
The scientists found that swapping out specific chemical building blocks in fluorescent molecules called rhodamines can generate dyes of nearly every color.
Such an expanded palette of dyes could help researchers better illuminate the inner workings of cells, said Luke Lavis, PhD, of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.
Dr Lavis and his colleagues used their new dyes to light up cell nuclei, label living brain tissue from fruit fly larvae, and highlight visual cortex neurons in mice that had tiny glass windows fitted into their skulls.
The team detailed their work in Nature Methods.
Dr Lavis noted that scientists used to concoct different dyes mostly by trial and error.
“Now, we’ve figured out the rules, and we can make almost any color,” he said.
Dr Lavis’s team focused their research on rhodamines because they’re especially bright and cell-permeable.
Chemists had been working with rhodamines for more than 100 years but created only a few dozen colors. Most were similar shades ranging from green to orange.
That’s because, until recently, making new rhodamines wasn’t easy. Scientists still used techniques from the earliest days of chemistry, boiling chemical ingredients in sulfuric acid. This forces the molecules to link together in a condensation reaction.
Mixing in different building blocks could yield new and unusual dyes, but ingredients had to be tough enough to survive the boiling acid bath. This didn’t leave a lot of options.
In 2011, Dr Lavis’s team developed a new way to tinker with rhodamines’ structure, under milder conditions. Using a reaction sparked by the metal palladium, the scientists could skip the acid step and construct dyes with more complicated building blocks than had been used before.
Four years later, the team revealed the Janelia Fluor dyes. The secret behind these dyes is a tiny, square-shaped appendage called an azetidine ring.
The scientists found that incorporating 4-membered azetidine rings into classic fluorophore structures elicited “substantial increases in brightness and photostability.” In fact, the Janelia Fluor dyes are up to 50 times brighter than other dyes.
Now, Dr Lavis’s group has figured out how to fine-tune their fluorescent dyes by tweaking rhodamines’ structure even further. The team showed that incorporating 3-substituted azetidine groups allowed them to tune spectral and chemical properties with “unprecedented precision.”
The dyes can be synthesized in a single step with inexpensive ingredients. The low cost has allowed Dr Lavis and his colleagues to share their work, shipping thousands of vials to hundreds of labs around the world.