The monthly journal, Molecular and Cellular Proteomics (MCP), has made an article published by Nobel Laureate Dr. Andrew Z. Fire available free to the public on its website (www.mcponline.org). The article, which appears in the November issue of the journal, is entitled "A Differential Cytolocalization Assay for Analysis of Macromolecular Assemblies in the Eukaryotic Cytoplasm."

Dr. Fire was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Dr. Craig C. Mello for their discovery of RNA interference (RNAi). In the MCP paper, Fire and colleagues report on their development of an assay that allows them to observe the interactions between proteins in vivo.

The researchers tested the assay in C. elegans, using it to probe interactions among proteins involved in RNA interference (RNAi) and nonsense mediated decay (NMD) pathways. Several previously documented interactions were confirmed with the assay, and many new ones were observed. Fire et al. also used the assay to test a subset of the RNAi and NMD interactions in animals mutant for proteins central to each mechanism, and were able to identify several key associations that occurred in the improperly functioning processes.