Robert E. Campbell
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Robert E. Campbell
@campbell-lab.bsky.social
1.7K followers 2.6K following 17 posts
Professor in the Department of Chemistry, School of Science, The University of Tokyo.

Editor-in-Chief of Protein Engineering, Design & Selection (PEDS).

Opinions are my own.

https://campbell.chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp
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campbell-lab.bsky.social
Protein Engineering, Design & Selection (PEDS) invites contributions to a Special Collection titled, “Non-Canonical Amino Acids", with guest editors Prof. Huiwang Ai (Virginia) and Prof. Peng Chen (Peking). Send us your best work!
academic.oup.com/peds/pages/c...
Non-canonical amino acid from PDB ID 8W3Z shown chelating to a magnesium ion. Image made with PyMol. https://www.rcsb.org/structure/8W3Z https://www.pymol.org
May 15, 2025 at 12:25 AM
campbell-lab.bsky.social
I, along with Dr. Sarah Shaykevich, will be speaking about red and near-infrared genetically encoded Ca2+ biosensors in the European Calcium Society (ECS) webinar on Wednesday, February 26th at 5 PM CET. This webinar series is open to everyone!

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
Poster for ECS Webinar with speakers Robert Campbell snd Sarah Shaykevich.
February 15, 2025 at 2:59 AM
campbell-lab.bsky.social
Doctoral student Dazhou Cheng's great work on developing a chemigenetic K+ indicator (doi.org/10.1021/jacs...) was featured in the Yomiuri Shimbun daily newspaper!
A photograph of a Japanese newspaper article describing chemical biology research. Translation: "The objects emitting reddish-purple light that looks like a nebula floating in space are actually the cells visualized by a ‘fluorescent indicator’. The fluorescent indicator developed by a research team in The University of Tokyo glows in response to potassium ions and is four to five times brighter than existing indicators. It is expected to be used in drug discovery and disease research. Potassium ions are essential for the transmission of the nervous system and muscle contraction. Using fluorescent indicators, the ion’s minute movements and the differences in concentration between cells can be detected. So, the achievement is expected to contribute to the development of drugs for potassium-related diseases such as arrhythmia, angina pectoris and cancer. Dazhou Cheng, a graduate student in the research team, along with other team members, incorporated a method named “Directed Evolution” to randomly mutate the gene encoding the protein framework to which potassium ion is bound. After three and a half years of repeated experiments, they selected the optimum type that changes light intensity in response to the amount of potassium ions. By combining it with synthetic fluorescent molecules, they succeeded in developing a fluorescent indicator that is brighter and easier to use than existing  indicators. Takuya Terai, Associate Professor on chemical biology at the university, says, “Fluorescent indicators are a weapon for understanding what is happening inside the body”. Like the fireflies that light up the summer nights, the indicator may become a light that illuminates the path of medical research. (Masakatsu Shimizu)"
January 24, 2025 at 8:10 AM