Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Tutzing 2026

Single-Molecule FRET: The Next 30 Years

Poster Abstracts

50-POS Board 26 STUDYING RNA INTERACTIONS OF PHASE-SEPARATING PROTEINS USING AN AUTOMATED SINGLE-MOLECULE FRET PLATFORM Andreas Hartmann 1,3 ; Anastasiia Chinakova 1,2,3 ; María del Sol Reyes Ortiz 1,3,5 ; Koushik Sreenivasa 6 ; Neharika Chamachi 1,7 ; Philipp Schake 2 ; Georg Krainer 1,8 ; Michael Schlierf 1,4,5 ; 1 B CUBE, Center for Molecular Bioengineering, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany 2 Biotechnology Center, Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany 3 RTG 3120 Biomolecular Condensates, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany 4 Physics of Life, DFG Cluster of Excellence, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany 5 Faculty of Physics, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany 6 Delft University of Technology, Department of Bionanoscience, Delft, The Netherlands Single-molecule FRET (smFRET) has become a versatile tool for probing the structure and functional dynamics of biomolecular systems, and is extensively used to address questions ranging from biomolecular folding to drug discovery. Confocal smFRET measurements are amongst the widely used smFRET assays and are typically performed in a single-well format. Thus, sampling of many experimental parameters is laborious and time consuming. The integration of multiwell plate functionality in confocal spectroscopy overcomes repetitive workflows and enables swift sample preparation without repeated preparation steps. The combination with multiparameter fluorescence detection opens up the possibilities to gather high-content spectroscopic data for biomolecular screening, conformational probing of multi component systems, affinity screening of small molecules, resolution of subtle conformational changes and many more. Recently single-molecule spectroscopy is used to study inter- and intra molecular interactions of multivalent proteins, which are involved in the formation of biomolecular condensates. Here we demonstrate the capabilities of the automated single molecule FRET platform to study protein-nucleic acid interactions revealing complex interactions and insights in RNA interactions of phase separating proteins. 7 DRESDEN concept Genome Center, TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany 8 Institute of Molecular Biosciences, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

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