Small protein aggregates (below 450 nm) are highly toxic as they are able to penetrate the cell membrane. Their small size makes these aggregates especially hard to study. 💡 With Amytracker, however, you can finally see them! Michael J. Morten and colleagues came up with a new approach that involves using Amytracker 630 and super-resolution microscopy to resolve aggregates involved in neurodegenerative disorders. In their experiments, Amytracker 630 performed much better than conventional staining methods, such as Thioflavin! 🏅

"We show that Amytracker 630 (AT630), a commercial aggregate-activated fluorophore, has outstanding photophysical properties that enable super-resolution imaging of α-synuclein, tau, and amyloid-β aggregates, achieving ∼4 nm precision"

🔬Image: Cell-penetrating aggregate species in HEK cells (Live super-resolution imaging by SMLM.) AmyT 630 (red), Proteasome foci (green). Typical foci-aggregate colocalizations are shown in the zoomed-in images. (white scale bars: 2 μm l and 200 nm), Morten et al. (Fig. 3C) (CC BY 4)