Membrane Protein Platform

Membrane proteins perform a wide range of functions in cells. They account for roughly 25% of all the proteins encoded by the human genome, and represent nearly 50% of the targets in therapeutic research. The membrane protein screening platform at Creative Biostructure is dedicated to provide service and scientific support to customers from both industry and academia for the study of membrane proteins including receptors, ion channels and transporters.

Figure 1. Workflow for membrane protein production and characterization

Platform Equipment

Cell Culture Room

The cell culture room houses BSL2 laminar flow hoods for cell culture work and sample preparation, each equipped with up-to-date filters, UV sterilization, and in-line aspirators. Other facility includes incubators, centrifuges and microscopes.

Biomek FX Liquid-Handling Robot

This robot, with multi-channel pipetting head, allows rapid and precise execution of experimental steps in high-throughput cloning and expression optimization.

ÄKTA Protein Purification System

This protein purification system covers all major chromatographic and cross-flow filtration techniques, and can handle purification tasks for almost any type of protein sample with the UNICORN software.

Protemist DT II Protein Synthesizer

This fully automated desktop protein synthesizer is specifically designed for wheat germ cell-free protein synthesis in either 6-well or 24-well format.

Caliper Labchip 90 System

This microfluidic chip-based system offers an automated high-throughput solution for PAGE analysis of protein and DNA samples in either 96- or 384-well format.

Services

Creative Biostructure is well-equipped and relies on high-throughput screening technologies for the expression and purification, as well as structural characterization of difficult membrane protein targets, such as GPCRs , ion channels , transporters and GPI-anchored proteins. Our platform supports a variety of membrane protein services that meet user’s specific requirements:

• Technical support for choosing appropriate cell-based or cell-free membrane protein production systems
• Membrane protein preparation in native conformation using liposome, virus-like particle (VLP) and nanodisc technologies
• Characterization of membrane protein properties including molecular size, glycosylation sites, isoelectric point (pI), pH stability, temperature stability, ionic strength stability, hydrophobicity, detergent requirement, biospecific affinity, etc.
• Detection of protein-protein interaction
• Structural determination by X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy or cryo-EM

Creative Biostructure is more than happy to be your reliable business associate, please feel free to contact us for a detailed quote.

Ordering Process

References

1. Sercombe L, et al. (2015). "Advances and challenges of liposome assisted drug delivery". Frontiers in Pharmacology 6: A286.
2. Dörr JM, et al. (2014). "Detergent-free isolation, characterization, and functional reconstitution of a tetrameric K⁺ channel: The power of native nanodiscs". PNAS 111(52): 18607–18612.
3. Shen H, et al. (2013). "Reconstitution of membrane proteins into model membranes: seeking better ways to retain protein activities". Int J Mol Sci 14: 1589–1607.
4. Shirbaghaee Z, et al. (2016). "Different applications of virus-like particles in biology and medicine: vaccination and delivery systems". Biopolymers 105: 113–132.