Visualizing Low-Abundance Proteins and Post-Translational Modifications in Living Drosophila Embryos via Fluorescent Antibody Injection

We aim to understand how mechanical and biochemical signals coordinate animal morphogenesis, including the detection and the response to forces by cells and molecules. More molecules have been discovered to be mechanosensitive, functioning differently under varying levels of tension. However, the physiological context and the function of these force-sensitive events remain largely unknown.

Due to the dynamic nature of force-sensitive events, our field largely relies on high speed fluorescence image and time-lapse recording to capture molecule and cellular behaviors. Many fluorescently tagged protein are not bright enough to be imaged, and it requires special temporal resolution without significant blanch. On the other hand, traditional immunofluorescence methods can only capture natural or molecule and cellular feature after fixation.