Prof’s discovery transforms molecule tagging
Joseph Fox ?93, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Delaware, has identified a novel reaction that will allow for biomolecule tagging at different temporal points in the life of a protein at a rate thousands of times faster than preexisting methods.?The glory of the reaction is that it is significantly faster than other types of reactions in this class,? Fox explained.Fox? discovery comes in the wake of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to the scientists who discovered the green fluorescent protein (GFP). Fox? reaction, a variant on the Diels-Alder reaction, does not produce toxic byproducts and is potentially applicable to experiments that track the activity of proteins in live organisms.