AMPHIPAThIC POLYMERS FOR EXTRACTING MEMBRANE PROTEINS FROM CELLS
Amphiphatic copolymers can dissolve cellular membranes into nanosized lipid particles without the use of detergents and is a facile method of obtaining membrane proteins in solubilized nanodiscs while conserving the native lipid bilayer. Unfortunately, available copolymers seem to only work on few, selected membrane proteins. The Autzen Lab is developing copolymers in collaboration with the Nanosmithery, headed by Assistant Professor Anton AA Autzen, PhD, (DTU) to enable detergent-free isolation of membrane proteins from their cell membranes as a framework for customized isolation and characterization of membrane proteins in their native context.
We have developed the copolymer AASTY (poly(acrylic acid-co-styrene)) for extracting membrane proteins in polymer stabilized discs. The polymer is available for purchase at Cube Biotech.
Opportunities
We are looking for students at all levels interested in working with new copolymers on a selection of targets to elucidate how the membrane proteins, and lipid membranes affect the system.
Contact Henriette if you are interested.
References
Characterization of Divalent Cation Interactions with AASTY Nanodiscs
Timcenko M, Autzen AAA*, Autzen HE*
ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 2022.
Lipid Nanodiscs via Ordered Copolymers
Smith AAA, Autzen HE, Faust B, Mann JL, Muir BW, Howard S, Postma A, Spakowitz AJ, Cheng Y, Appel EA
Chem, 2020, Volume 6, Issue 10, 8, 2782-2795.
Membrane Mimetic Systems in Cryo-EM: Keeping Membrane Proteins in their Native Environment
Autzen HE, Julius D, Cheng Y
Current Opinion in Structural Biology, 2019, 58:259–268.
Controlling styrene maleic acid lipid particles through RAFT
Smith AAA, Autzen HE, Laursen T, Wu V, Yen M, Hall A, Hansen SD, Cheng Y, Xu T
Biomacromolecules, 2017, 18 (11), pp 3706-3713.