Fluorescent Fish 2022-2023 Project – Expression and Analysis of Fluorescent Fish Proteins in Vitro
Rachel Zhang (Form VI), Morgan McDonald (Form VI), Annika Shekdar (Form V), Ethan Boroditsky (Form V)
Project Summary + Project Goal
Fluorescent Fish is made possible by the discovery of the fluorescent eel in 2013, the first fluorescent marine animal. Since then, the lizardfish was discovered, which is another fluorescent organism, whose protein we are focusing on. We are hoping to express novel fluorescent proteins from fluorescent fish and learn about their fluorescent properties.
Current State
This past year, we were able to get expression and purification of the protein. We also concluded that the protein was soluble, which is a great indicator that we can move forward with our research, and potentially insert a fluorescent cofactor into the protein.
Next Steps
We will express the fluorescent fatty-acid binding protein on a larger scale and then design a protocol for inducing fluorescence by adding biliverdin. Several other similar proteins will also be expressed and analyzed.
Research Week Poster

References
Baker, Monya. “First Fluorescent Protein Identified in a Vertebrate.” Nature, 13 June 2013, www.nature.com/articles/nature.2013.13190, 10.1038/nature.2013.13190. Accessed 6 Apr. 2022.
Gruber, David F., et al. “Adaptive Evolution of Eel Fluorescent Proteins from Fatty Acid Binding Proteins Produces Bright Fluorescence in the Marine Environment.” PLOS ONE, vol. 10, no. 11, 11 Nov. 2015, p. e0140972, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0140972, 10.1371/journal.pone.0140972. Accessed 7 Apr. 2022.
Remington, S. James. “Green Fluorescent Protein: A Perspective.” Protein Science, vol. 20, no. 9, 19 July 2011, pp. 1509–1519, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3190146/, 10.1002/pro.684. Accessed 7 Apr. 2022.
Rodriguez, Erik A., et al. “The Growing and Glowing Toolbox of Fluorescent and Photoactive Proteins.” Trends in Biochemical Sciences, vol. 42, no. 2, Feb. 2017, pp. 111–129, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5272834/, 10.1016/j.tibs.2016.09.010. Accessed 6 Apr. 2022.
Ye, Songtao, et al. “Principles, Modulation, and Applications of Fluorescent Protein Chromophores.” Chemical Physics Reviews, vol. 3, no. 1, Mar. 2022, p. 011308, aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0080417, 10.1063/5.0080417. Accessed 7 Apr. 2022.
Meet the Team




Rachel Zhang
Morgan McDonald
Annika Shekdar
Ethan Boroditsky
