Research

The MPID Center aims to significantly contribute to the main goal of the Protein Structure Initiative by solving structures of novel membrane proteins with a large sequence and structural coverage. Each of these structures will represent a breakthrough in the understanding of the molecular basis of infectious diseases.

We use 50 target viral, bacterial and human membrane proteins as model systems for the development of improved expression, purification, crystallization, and X-ray structure determination schemes for membrane proteins. These 50 targets include

Membrane Proteins	Notes
Coronaviruses	15 targets including E proteins and M proteins
HIV	2 target proteins including gp41 and gp41 complex with gp120 and GAG
Francisella tularensis	13 target proteins including TolC-B precursor and CapA, B and C and complexes
human proteins involved in pathogenesis	12 targets including T-cell surface protein CD4 and several Tol-like receptors

As of February 2011, the MPID Center has made significant progress on the following:

Coronaviruses: 7 proteins are already cloned 3 proteins expressed in vivo and isolated Functional essay established 2 proteins in crystallization pipeline

HIV: Different variants of proteins already cloned and expressed 2 variants in crystallization pipeline Crystals of a fusion protein of the MPER region of gp41 with CTB

Francisella tularensis: All target proteins cloned and in vivo expression shown for most of them

Human: 5 target proteins clones