Professor Richard Hartley

A particularly powerful approach to living cell-based sensors for toxicity etc is to combine the functional complexity of living cells with the specificity of small molecules. We have developed small molecules that detect the reactive oxygen species (ROS) involved in damaging processes and in intracellular signaling in specific places in whole organisms. Now we are developing molecular probes that can self-assemble onto modified protein scaffolds localized in particular regions of living cells to produce molecular devices for reporting cellular changes in response to stimuli e.g. the toxicity of potential drugs.

Cochemé, H. M.; Logan, A.; Prime, T. A.; Abakumova, I.; Quin, C.; McQuaker, S. J.; Patel, J. V.; Fearnley, I. M.; James, A. M.; Porteous, C. M.; Smith, R. A. J.; Hartley, R. C.; Partridge, L.; Murphy, M. P. (2012) Using the mitochondria-targeted ratiometric mass spectrometry probe MitoB to measure H2O2 in living Drosophila. Nat. Protoc., 7, 946-958. (doi:10.1038/nprot.2012.035)

Cochemé, H. M.; Quin, C.; McQuaker, S. J.; Cabreiro, F.; Logan, A.; Prime, T. A.; Abakumova, I.; Patel, J. V.; Fearnley, I. M.; James, A. M.; Porteous, C. M.; Smith, R. A. J.; Saeed, S.; Carré, J. E.; Singer, M.; Gems, D.; Hartley, R. C.; Partridge, L.; Murphy, M. P. (2011) Measurement of H2O2 within Living Drosophila during Aging Using a Ratiometric Mass Spectrometry Probe Targeted to the Mitochondrial Matrix. Cell Metabolism 2011, 13, 340-350. (doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2011.02.003)