QLS seminar - Jonathan Oyebamiji Babalola - 16 September 2022 at 10:00 hrs CET

[Quantitative Life Sciences]

Dear All,

On Friday, 16 September  2022  at 10:00 hrs CET, Jonathan Oyebamiji 
Babalola (University of Ibadan, Nigeria) will give a seminar titled*
*

*Solubilisation of membrane proteins and lipids into functional bilayer 
nanodiscs by poly(diisobutylene-/alt/-maleic acid) and other polymers *


Abstract:
Membrane proteins play abundant roles in cellular and transport 
functions, thus represent a significant class of drug targets. However, 
their extraction and /in vitro/investigations are challenging due to 
their very hydrophobic nature.  Conventionally, the extraction is 
achieved with the aid of a surface-active compound known as detergent, 
but most detergents cause irreversible loss of structure and activity to 
membrane proteins. To solve these problemsscaffold proteins or 
amphiphilic polymers such as styrene/maleic acid (SMA) copolymers were 
introduced as alternatives to detergent, but the lipid order was 
affected and there were precipitations in the presence of divalent 
cations. We show that an alternating diisobutylene/maleic acid (DIBMA) 
copolymer shows equal performance to SMA in solubilizing phospholipids, 
stabilizes an integral membrane enzyme in functional bilayer nanodiscs, 
and extracts proteins of various sizes directly from cellular membranes. 
Unlike aromatic SMA, aliphatic DIBMA has only a mild effect on lipid 
acyl-chain order, does not interfere with optical spectroscopy in the 
far-UV range, and does not precipitate in the presence of low millimolar 
concentrations of divalent cations.DIBMA was found to be highly charged 
and had effect on the electrostatic environment of the membrane 
proteins, hence the development of other polymers such of supho-DIBMA 
and Glyco-DIBMA.


Indico webpage: https://indico.ictp.it/event/10049/

The seminar will be held in the *ICTP Common area, second floor, ex 
SISSA building, *via Beirut, 2.

You are all most cordially invited to participate!

Best regards,

Erica

-- 
Erica Sarnataro
Group Secretary
Quantitative Life Sciences
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP)
Trieste,  Italy
Tel. +39-040-2240623
www.ictp.it/research/qls.aspx
e-mail:qls at ictp.it