Bispecific Small Molecule

Modular Interacting Protein

Genetic Code Expansion

Nanobody

Our research program uses organic chemistry and synthetic biology as a tool to investigate and modulate biological system. To create functional protein-protein interactions, we will develop bispecific small molecule and engineer conditionally interacting protein module by directed evolution. Another synthetic biology efforts will be conducted to expand nature's genetic codes to site specifically introduce novel synthetic amino acid in vivo. In addition, we will evolve a single-domain antibody that tightly binds to small molecule for many applications including bio-imaging.

Selected Publications

1. Ahn, J.+, Kim, T.+, Bae, J.+, Jung, J.+, Lee, J., Lee, H., Mun, J., Kim, S., Park, J., Kim, J.*, & Koh, M.*, “Reversible Protein Labeling via Genetically Encoded Dithiolane-Containing Amino Acid and Organoarsenic Probes” Bioconjug. Chem., 36 (5), 1034–1039 (2025).

2. Choi, J., Ahn, J., Bae, J., Yoon, M., Yun, H. & Koh, M.*, “Designing a Novel Temperature- and Noncanonical Amino Acid-Controlled Biological Logic Gate in Escherichia coli” ACS Synth. Biol., 13 (8), 2587–2599 (2024).

3. Koh, M., Ahmad, I., Ko, Y., Zhang, Y., Martinez, T. F., Diedrich, J. K., Chu, Q., Moresco, J. J., Erb, M. A., Saghatelian, A., Schultz, P. G. & Bollong, M. J., “A short ORF-encoded transcriptional regulator” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 118 (4), e2021943118 (2021)

4. Koh, M.+, Yao, A.+, Gleason, P. R., Mills, J. H. & Schultz, P. G., "A general strategy for engineering noncanonical amino acid dependent bacterial growth" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 141 (41), 16213-16216 (2019).

5. Koh, M.+, Cho, H.-Y.+, Yu, C., Choi, S., Lee, K.-B. & Schultz, P. G., "Site-specific incorporation of a dithiolane containing amino acid into proteins", Bioconjug. Chem. 30 (8), 2102-2105 (2019).

6. Koh, M., Nasertorabi, F., Han, G. W., Stevens, R. C. & Schultz, P. G., "Generation of an orthogonal protein-protein interface with a noncanonical amino acid", J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139 (16), 5728-5731 (2017).

7. Koh, M., Park, J., Koo, J. Y., Lim, D., Cha, M. Y., Jo, A., Choi, J. H. & Park, S. B. "Phenotypic screening to identify small-molecule enhancers for glucose uptake: target identification and rational optimization of their efficacy", Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53 (20), 5102-5106 (2014).

8. Koh, M., Park, J., An, H. & Park, S. B. "Ratiometric analysis of zidovudine (ZDV) incorporation by reverse transcriptases or polymerases via bio-orthogonal click chemistry", Chem. Commun. (Camb.) 47, 7614-7616 (2011).