Monday, 24 July 4:00pm – 5:00pm

This seminar will be delivered in Chemistry Lecture Theatre 2 and Online (Zoom) Please email chemistry.researchsupport@sydney.edu.au for zoom link and password.

Speaker: A/Prof. Ankona Datta, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

Host: Prof. Elizabeth New

Title: Lighting up Bio-Molecules with Fluorescent Chemical Tools

Abstract: Regulated temporal changes in localization and levels of bio-molecules mediate key decision-making life processes like cell-signaling. Hence, tracking bio-molecules in living systems can provide a handle into molecular mechanisms of life. Fluctuations in molecular distribution in ms-min timescale are implicated in signaling processes. Two major requirements for tracking biological signals are: 1. A non-invasive imaging modality with appropriate spatial and temporal resolutions; 2. Identifying spectroscopic features that can be used to specifically track a molecule of interest. Advances in fluorescence imaging provide us with numerous choices of optical microscopy platforms for tracking bio-molecules with requisite resolutions. However, we cannot visualize non-fluorescent molecules in an optical imaging platform and many bio-molecules are either not fluorescent or do not emit in an appropriate wavelength range suitable for non-invasive detection within living systems. In this context, fluorescent chemo-sensors that can interact selectively with a specific molecule and afford an intensity change or a shift in emission wavelength can be valuable tools for visualizing molecules. Our group has developed cell-permeable chemo-sensors that can track biologically relevant metal ions,1, 2 lipids,3, 4 and proton gradients5 in living cells and in multicellular organisms. In this talk, I will present our forays in to bio-molecular detection and also discuss open-challenges in sensor development.

1. Das, S.; Khatua, K.;  Rakshit, A.;  Carmona, A.;  Sarkar, A.;  Bakthavatsalam, S.;  Ortega, R.; Datta, A., Emerging chemical tools and techniques for tracking biological manganese. Dalton Transactions 2019, 48 (21), 7047-7061.
2. Das, S.; Carmona, A.;  Khatua, K.;  Porcaro, F.;  Somogyi, A.;  Ortega, R.; Datta, A., Manganese Mapping Using a Fluorescent Mn2+ Sensor and Nanosynchrotron X-ray Fluorescence Reveals the Role of the Golgi Apparatus as a Manganese Storage Site. Inorganic Chemistry 2019, 8 (20), 13724-13732.
3. Chandra, A.; Datta, A., A Peptide-Based Fluorescent Sensor for Anionic Phospholipids. ACS Omega 2022, 7 (12), 10347-10354.
4. Mondal, S.; Rakshit, A.;  Pal, S.; Datta, A., Cell Permeable Ratiometric Fluorescent Sensors for Imaging Phosphoinositides. ACS Chemical Biology 2016, 11 (7), 1834-43.
5. Das, S.; Kapadia, A.;  Pal, S.; Datta, A., Spatio-Temporal Autophagy Tracking with a Cell-Permeable, Water-Soluble, Peptide-Based, Autophagic Vesicle-Targeted Sensor. ACS Sensors 2021, 6 (6), 2252-2260.

Bio: Ankona received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in 2000. She did her graduate work on chiral water-soluble porphyrins for catalysis and recognition with Prof. John T. Groves at Princeton University (Ph.D., 2006). After graduating from Princeton, she joined as a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Prof. Ken Raymond at the University of California, Berkeley, where she worked on macromolecular MRI contrast agents.

Since 2010 she is a faculty in the Department of Chemical Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India. Her current research interests are in the fields of Chemical Biology and Molecular Imaging.