美国Scripps研究所最近获得了联邦政府关于研究膜蛋白结构特征的基金，它于8月25号宣布将与世界知名的生物科学技术公司Invitrogen的研发人员合作对膜蛋白的表达及其特征进行研究。
Invitrogen公司研发部门的高级副总裁Claude Benchimol表示对于能与膜蛋白研究前沿领域的专家合作感到非常高兴。目前大约有50％药物的靶标分子都是膜蛋白，同时也是研究时经常遇到的难点。它们以可溶形式表达进而进行构象分析是十分困难的。
根据合作的协议，Scripps研究所和Invitrogen将共同发展研究膜蛋白的技术。同时Invitrogen公司有权对这些技术在研究领域和药物筛选领域进行商业化。
CARLSBAD ---- Invitrogen Corp. has teamed up with The Scripps Research Institute to tackle one of the toughest problems in drug research: how to get drugs to protein "targets" on the surface membranes of cells.
These membrane proteins are of interest because they can be used to precisely direct therapy, said Arun Fotedar, a professor at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center in La Jolla. For example, Biogen Idec's blockbuster drug Rituxan attaches itself to a membrane protein found only on certain white blood cells involved in diseases, causing their destruction.
If the collaboration succeeds, Invitrogen will be in a strong position to help other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies develop drugs, said Paul Predki, vice president of Invitrogen's protein microarray center.
But it's extremely hard to work with these membrane proteins in living cells, Predki said. The proteins must be dissolved, extracted from cells and crystallized so their structure can be determined. The trouble is, these proteins dissolve in fat, not water, making crystallization difficult.
Carlsbad-based Invitrogen has developed a reliable method of making the membrane proteins outside of cells, Predki said, and the laboratory of Geoffrey Chang at Scripps has expertise in crystallization. Combined, their technologies show promise in making it easier to understand the proteins' structure, Predki said, so a potential drug can be "tweaked" for maximum effectiveness.
Invitrogen did not release financial details of the collaboration, but spokesman Greg Geissman said the company is paying for two postdoctoral researchers in Chang's lab.
Scientists estimate that membrane proteins make up more than half of all molecular targets. However, out of 80,000 proteins whose structures have been determined, fewer than 100 are membrane proteins, said Toni Kudlicki, a manager in Invitrogen's proteomics group.
