Application of Tuneable Polymer Nanodisc Materials for Investigation and Selective Solubilisation of Biological Membranes

Membrane proteins reside within the protective layer encasing biological cells, otherwise known as the phospholipid membrane, and are hugely important to the functioning of cells and ultimately to the survival of organisms. However, information about their structures is difficult to obtain due to the need to isolate and purify them from their cellular membrane environment without damaging their structure. This research has developed new synthetic polymers, which capture membrane proteins into water soluble nanodiscs and retain their structural conformations by coextracting a bundle of surrounding phospholipids, providing a new tool to obtain knowledge about membrane proteins.