View All Crystallisation at Instruct
Lipidic cubic phase (LCP) crystallisation is an alternative to standard crystallisation for membrane proteins. It allows membrane proteins to crystallise in a close to native and stable environment, in a lipidic bilayer. G-protein-coupled receptors (GCPR) protein crystallisation demonstrated the power of this approach; Cherezov V et al. High Resolution Crystal Structure of an Engineered Human β2-Adrenergic G protein-Coupled Receptor. As LCP is described as infinite 3D periodic structure, membrane proteins (MP) can freely diffuse laterally along the membrane. Diffusion is one of the important pre-crystallisation characteristic of the MP embedded into lipidic bilayer, which could be checked by Fluorescence recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) technique available at HTMPC platform.
The platform is fully equipped to accomplish successful in meso crystallization (lipidic cubic phase, LCP) of membrane proteins. Robotic nanovolume dispensers (NT8 and Mosquito) screen 96 precipitant conditions with small amount of sample (5µl per plate) in few minutes. Our platform works with commercially available kits specialized in membrane protein crystallization. Automated imaging systems, RockImager 1500 and 1000 (Formulatrix), visualize crystallization drops with visible and UV lights. HTMPC is now part of the HTX Lab (EMBL) and benefits from CrystalDirect technology developed at the HTX Lab. CrystalDirect plate allows automated crystal harvesting and is well adapted to crystals grown in LCP drops.
LCP-FRAP measures membrane protein mobility in lipidic bilayer, which correlates with crystallisation in LCP.
High Throughput MPC platform is fully equipped to accomplish successful crystallisation of your membrane protein.
