Westlake University 4 articles published in JoVE Developmental Biology Optogenetic Inhibition of Rho1-Mediated Actomyosin Contractility Coupled with Measurement of Epithelial Tension in Drosophila Embryos Hanqing Guo1,2, Michael Swan3, Bing He1 1Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, 2School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 3Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University Actomyosin contractility plays an important role in cell and tissue morphogenesis. However, it is challenging to manipulate actomyosin contractility in vivo acutely. This protocol describes an optogenetic system that rapidly inhibits Rho1-mediated actomyosin contractility in Drosophila embryos, revealing the immediate loss of epithelial tension after the inactivation of actomyosin in vivo. Neuroscience Craniotomy Procedure for Visualizing Neuronal Activities in Hippocampus of Behaving Mice YangDong Wang1,2,3,4, DanYang Zhu5, BaoYue Liu1,2,3,6, Kiryl D. Piatkevich1,2,3 1School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 2Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, 3Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Westlake Institute for Advanced Study, 4 This article demonstrates the preparation of a custom-made imaging window supplemented with infusion cannula and its implantation onto the CA1 region of the hippocampus in mice. Immunology and Infection Targeted Antibody Blocking by a Dual-Functional Conjugate of Antigenic Peptide and Fc-III Mimetics (DCAF) Xue Bai*1,2, Lin Zhang*3, Jin Hu2, Xiuxiu Zhao2, Jinheng Pan2, Haiteng Deng3, Shan Feng1,2 1Key Laboratory of Structural Biology of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 2Mass Spectrometry Core Facility, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 3MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics, Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University Development of a dual-functional conjugate of antigenic peptide and Fc-III mimetics (DCAF) is novel for the elimination of harmful antibodies. Here, we describe a detailed protocol for the synthesis of DCAF1 molecule, which can selectively block 4G2 antibody to eliminate antibody dependent enhancement effect during Dengue virus infection. Biochemistry Nitropeptide Profiling and Identification Illustrated by Angiotensin II Shan Feng1,2, Xiaofei Wen3, Xin Lu2,4,5,6 1Mass Spectrometry Core Facility, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, 2Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, 3Department of Urology, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, 4Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases, University of Notre Dame, 5Harper Cancer Research Institute, University of Notre Dame, 6Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis Program, Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center Proteomic profiling of tyrosine-nitrated proteins has been a challenging technique due to the low abundance of the 3-nitrotyrosine modification. Here we describe a novel approach for nitropeptide enrichment and profiling by using Angiotensin II as the model. This method can be extended for other in vitro or in vivo systems.