Development of novel electrospray coupled microfluidic devices: New tools for elucidating the role of transient intermediates in protein function

几乎所有的生化反应都是通过多个步骤进行的，在此过程中会产生“瞬时中间体”。这些瞬时中间体在蛋白质的生物活性中起着至关重要的作用，可能代表着一个巨大的潜在药物靶点的未开发池。问题是，暂态中间体往往是如此短暂，以至于它们往往很难直接检测到，更不用说详细描述了。我所在团队的研究重点是开发用于研究瞬时蛋白质中间体的新工具。我们通过将用于快速、精确的液体处理的微流体和电喷雾质谱仪的分析能力相结合来做到这一点。我们的首要目标是实现对瞬时蛋白质中间体的复杂的、基于结构的研究，最终导致：1)更好地了解瞬时物种及其在生物学中的作用；2)识别药物治疗的新靶点。

Virtually all biochemical reactions occur through multiple steps with 'transient intermediates' along the way. These transient intermediates play a crucial role in the biological activity of proteins and may represent a vast untapped pool of potential drug targets. The trouble is, transient intermediates are often so short-lived that they are often difficult to detect directly, let alone characterize in detail. Research in my group focuses on the development of new tools for studying transient protein intermediates. We do this by combining microfluidics for rapid, precise liquid handling and the analytical power of electrospray mass spectrometry. Our overriding objective is to enable complex, structure based studies on transient protein intermediates leading ultimately to i) better understanding of transient species and their role in biology and ii) identification of new targets for drug therapy.