Synthetic Co-Polymer Nanodisc Enabling Near-Native Membrane Protein Assays

In this webinar, the featured speakers will introduce the application of synthetic co-polymer nanodisc to solubilize and stabilize membrane proteins for further characterization.

Integral membrane proteins are essential for cellular function. Sitting at the edge of the cell, they are the first point of contact between cells and their environment. As such, they mediate how cells sense and interact with their surroundings, communicate with other cells and tightly control what gets in or out. Not surprisingly, they are also the linchpin of the pharmaceutical industry.

Although they represent about a third of the proteins encoded in the human genome, they are targeted by roughly 70% of the currently approved drugs. Unfortunately, at par with their biomedical relevance is the difficulty of characterizing them. To do so has traditionally involved removing them from their native environment and replacing the membrane with detergents. Alas, detergents are a poor replacement for the membrane, often leading to loss of stability and function. Moreover, finding the best detergent is a time-consuming process. Even with access to the best detergent, excess detergent is a necessity, which can affect downstream applications.

Polymers — made of alternating acidic and hydrophobic groups — can integrate into the membrane and self-assemble so-called native nanodisc. All of this happens in a single-step reaction, without ever using detergents. By keeping the membrane protein always surrounded by their native lipids, function should be preserved.

Join this webinar to gain insights into the application of synthetic co-polymer nanodisc to solubilize and stabilize membrane proteins for further characterization.

Speakers

Dr. Mario Leutert, Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zurich

Dr. Mario Leutert is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zurich. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington’s Department of Genome Sciences, received a PhD in Molecular Life Sciences from the University of Zurich, and a master’s degree in biotechnology from ETH Zurich.

His research centers on the development of technologies that permit proteome-wide characterization of cellular signaling and protein regulatory networks, including biochemical techniques, mass spectrometry methods and computational approaches. Using these strategies, he intends to comprehend the wiring diagram of the cell, thereby identifying and reversing changes that occur during aging and disease.

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Dr. Felipe Merino, Head of Cryo-EM, Cube Biotech

Dr. Felipe Merino is the head of Cube Biotech’s Cryo-EM division, where he oversees several of their structural biology services. With a long track record in structural biology and biochemistry research, he also is a key part of Cube’s research and development team.

Dr. Merino obtained his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine Münster working on macromolecular modelling and simulation. He later became an expert in electron cryomicroscopy through his postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology in Dortmund and as a project leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen. His combined expertise in atomic modeling and cryo-EM has provided him with a unique skill set allowing him to tackle challenging structural biology problems, such as those typically presented by membrane proteins.

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