Patent ID: 8679753

Claim:
A method for modulating a cellular activity, comprising: providing a fusion molecule to a cell, wherein the fusion molecule is assembled by a method comprising: generating a circular permutation of an insertion nucleic acid sequence, wherein the insertion nucleic acid sequence encodes a polypeptide that recognizes an input signal; and inserting the insertion sequence into an acceptor nucleic acid sequence, wherein the acceptor sequence encodes a polypeptide that produces an output signal provided the output signal is not fluorescence, wherein the fused insertion and acceptor sequences encode a modulatable fusion polypeptide having the output signal functionally coupled to the input signal, wherein a change in state of at least the insertion sequence or the acceptor sequence modulates a cellular activity, and wherein the change in state which modulates the cellular activity is coupled to a change in state of the respective other portion of the fusion molecule; and changing the state of the respective other portion of the fusion molecule, thereby modulating the cellular activity.