What is fluorescence resonance energy transfer used for?

FRET is involved in several uses in biology. It is able to measure distances between different sections of a protein by attaching fluorescent tags to those domains, then analyzing the emitted light to measure the distance between the tags. This analysis is possible as long as there's no significant change in its shape during the process. If a molecule undergoes substantial structural alterations, FRET can still track the interactions between different sites, like protein-protein interactions. Additionally, FRET is extensively used in biomedical studies as a detection tool. Oligonucleotides consisting of a DNA backbone coupled with chromophore tags serve as effective FRET probes. These probes offer significant benefits, particularly for tracking biochemical reactions in real-time and conducting in vivo experiments. Lastly, FRET is important in identifying chemical probes to analyze a target's involvement in disease biology, thus forming the basis for drug discovery.