Chemical rescue of a mutant enzyme in living cells

Raising enzymes from the dead and the secrets they can tell

The complexity of partners and reaction sequence has made the deciphering eukaryotic signaling pathways particularly difficult. Various approaches have yielded important results. A recent paper reports on an advance that uses chemical rescue of inactive mutant of Src. The rescue was done in cells, and the results obtained showing new aspects of Src function point the way toward a general use of this chemical tool in the sorting out of complex biological processes.