{
  "id": 20104828,
  "title": "Scalable recorders of cellular calcium dynamics and molecular interactions across time",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/14/scalable-recorders-of-cellular-calcium-dynamics-and-molecular",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-11-14T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.13.765775v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Cellular activities are influenced by dynamic biochemical events within their natural environment, such as fluctuations in ion concentrations and brief molecular interactions. To study these processes across large populations of cells, it is necessary to record their dynamics simultaneously and over time within individual cells. Researchers have developed split-1POK, a split protein tape monomer that reconstitutes its two halves once the domains attached to them interact. This reconstituted monomer is then integrated into the protein tape as it grows over time, allowing for scalable, spatiotemporally resolved recording of cellular events under standard light microscopy.\n\nSplit-1POK serves as a customizable structure for new recorders in the CytoSense family, a framework introduced previously. This family of recorders operates by having the same cytosol-localized monomer sense cellular activity and write it onto protein tape recorders, without requiring the signal to be encoded through new gene expression as seen in transcription-based activity recorders. Fusing calmodulin and its binding peptide to split-1POK, researchers created TCaMP (Tape monomer-Calmodulin-Peptide), a genetically encoded calcium recorder (GECR) that measures calcium dynamics on a single, continuous time axis, enabling quantitative comparisons of calcium levels within the same cell over time.\n\nIn cultured human cells, TCaMP records transient calcium dynamics triggered by transmembrane entry, receptor activation, and intracellular store release, detecting stimulations as brief as ten minutes. With hour-scale kinetics spanning several days, TCaMP complements fluorescent calcium indicators by sacrificing sub-second temporal resolution for the ability to record calcium levels over long periods. Additionally, fusing conditional dimerization pairs to split-1POK generates recorders that track molecular interaction histories in response to external stimuli. Thus, split-1POK enables scalable, spatiotemporally resolved recording of intracellular calcium dynamics and molecular interactions across time.",
  "summary": "Cellular processes are mediated by dynamic biochemical events in their native context, including changes in intracellular ion concentrations and transient interactions between molecules. Studying these processes across large cell populations requires recording their dynamics across time in single cells, simultaneously and at scale. Here, we introduce split-1POK, a split protein tape monomer whose…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}