System for Resolving Native Membrane Nanodiscs and Protein Assemblies

本提案要求资助购买一种最先进的系统，用于分离生物学上完整的大分子复合物并阐明其寡聚态、化学计量和多分散性。这些配合物来源于天然来源，包括植物、真菌和动物的原始膜，完整的细胞和组织，由多种蛋白质、脂质和两亲性聚合物组成，它们被设计成自发释放到5到20纳米之间的纳米颗粒中。这克服了传统洗涤剂的局限性，使不稳定、不稳定和罕见的复合物能够在天然状态下低成本地生产和研究，并为分子和结构生物学研究以及生物技术、国防、能源和制药工业的应用提供了一个台阶。

This proposal requests funding to purchase a state-of-the-art system for separating biologically intact macromolecular complexes and elucidating their oligomeric states, stoichiometries and polydispersities. The complexes are derived from natural sources including raw membrane from plants, fungi and animal sources, whole cells and tissues, and consist of multiple proteins, lipid species and amphipathic polymers which have been designed for spontaneous release into nanoparticles between 5 and 20 nm. This overcomes the limitations of conventional detergents and allows unstable, labile and rare complexes to be produced cost effectively and studied in native states, and offers a step-change for molecular and structural biology research as well as applications in biotechnology, defense, energy and pharmaceutical industries.