University of Tübingen: Attempto Prize for the visualization of individual proteins in living neurons

The Attempto Prize 2022 of the Tübingen Attempto Foundation goes to Aleksandra Arsić, who is doing her doctorate at the Werner Reichardt Center for Integrative Neurosciences (CIN) at the University of Tübingen. The Attempto Prize, which is endowed with 5,000 euros, was presented to her at the General Assembly of the University Association on October 19, 2022 in the Neue Aula in Tübingen.

According to the prize’s selection committee, Aleksandra Arsić is being honored for a study that sets a qualitative milestone in basic research in the imaging study of individual proteins in living nerve cells. The method opens up new possibilities in brain imaging research.

Arsić and her co-authors found a way to mark specific proteins in the living nerve cell with a fluorescent dye. These neurofilaments are part of the cytoskeleton that gives nerve cells their structure. The minimal labeling does not interfere with the normal metabolic processes of the cells. As a result, processes in nerve cells in mice can be tracked at the level of the neurofilament molecules using advanced methods of light microscopy, even beyond the diffraction limit of light.

In order to visualize only the neurofilament molecule class of interest under the light microscope, Aleksandra Arsić and her colleagues, led by Dr. Ivana Nikić-Spiegel presented a highly specific genetic manipulation at the CIN: an artificial amino acid was inserted into the chains of amino acid building blocks that make up the neurofilaments. The research team was able to couple a dye to this in a click mark, which emits a fluorescence signal. The click label is based on the innovative methods of biologically applied click chemistry, for the discovery of which this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry is being awarded.

The approach developed by Aleksandra Arsić and her co-authors not only allows previously unthinkable insights into the molecular structure of living neurons and their normal development, but also insights into the role of molecular changes resulting from mutations, infections and environmental influences of various kinds that are presumed to be responsible for the development of neurons Disorders of normal brain functions may be responsible, said Professor Hans-Peter Thier from the CIN in his laudatory speech.

The Attempto Prize was donated in 1983 by the psychiatrist Konrad Ernst and his wife Dorothea. It is awarded to young scientists for outstanding work on brain performance and its disorders, which was produced at the University of Tübingen and at the Tübingen institutions of the Max Planck Society associated with the university. Most recently, the Attempto Prize 2019 was awarded. The prize money of 5,000 euros can be used to promote further academic careers. The Attempto Foundation has been administered by the University Association since its inception in 1983.