Membrane Protein Laboratory opens at Diamond synchrotron
1 September 2008
A large part of the structural biology work at Diamond is already dedicated to solving the structures of proteins in our bodies. Now, scientists working at the MPL will be able to examine the proteins that are embedded in the membranes coating the cells in our bodies.
Membrane proteins make up just under a third of the human genome. There are over 7000 different membrane proteins in our bodies and many of these are important drug targets. However, so far scientists have only solved the structures of less than five of these proteins. This is largely due to the fact that, in order to determine their structures, scientists need to crystallise the membrane proteins, which is extremely difficult to do.
“The opening of the Membrane Protein Laboratory marks a very exciting development in the study of the most intractable of the large biological molecules: the membrane proteins," says Professor So Iwata from Imperial College London, who has been appointed Director of the MPL. "These proteins are generally avoided by structural biologists as they are a challenge to study due to the fact that they are very oily and hydrophobic. Diamond and Imperial have teamed up to create the Membrane Protein Laboratory so that expertise in this specialist field can be shared and we can encourage other structural biologists to take on the challenge of solving these difficult but extremely important proteins.”
Financial support has also been provided by Japanese Science and Technology to set up the Human Receptor Crystallography project, which funded part of the equipment and staff who currently work at the MPL.
