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

事实上，所有的生化反应都是通过多个步骤进行的，中间沿着着“瞬时中间体”。这些短暂的中间体在蛋白质的生物活性中起着至关重要的作用，并且可能代表了大量未开发的潜在药物靶点。问题是，瞬态中间产物的存在时间通常很短，很难直接检测到，更不用说详细描述了。我的研究小组的研究重点是开发用于研究瞬时蛋白质中间体的新工具。我们通过将微流体技术用于快速、精确的液体处理和电喷雾质谱的分析能力相结合来实现这一目标。我们最重要的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i）更好地理解瞬时物种及其在生物学中的作用，以及ii）鉴定药物治疗的新靶点。

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.