Light-cleavable rapamycin dimer as an optical trigger for protein dimerization

Rapamycin-induced protein heterodimerization of FKBP12 and FRB is one of the most commonly employed switches to conditionally control biological processes. We developed an optically activated rapamycin dimer that does not induce FKBP12-FRB dimerization until exposed to light, and applied it to control kinase, protease, and recombinase function.