TY - JOUR
T1 - Graphene-Based Nucleants for Protein Crystallization
AU - Govada, Lata
AU - Rubio, Noelia
AU - Saridakis, Emmanuel
AU - Balaskandan, Kalpana
AU - Leese, Hannah
AU - Li, Yanmin
AU - Wang, Beijia
AU - Shaffer, Milo S.P.
AU - Chayen, Naomi
N1 - Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support
Networks of Excellence Award RSRO. Grant Number: P41619
Imperial College London EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account. Grant Number: EP/R511547/1
Funding Information:
L.G. and N.R. contributed equally to this work. The authors acknowledge funding from the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF): Networks of Excellence Award RSRO P41619 and the Imperial College London EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account EP/R511547/1.
PY - 2022/10/17
Y1 - 2022/10/17
N2 - Protein crystallization remains a major bottleneck for the determination of high resolution structures. Nucleants can accelerate the process but should ideally be compatible with high throughput robotic screening. Polyethylene glycol grafted (PEGylated) graphenes can be stabilized in water providing dispensable, nucleant systems. Two graphitic feedstocks are exfoliated and functionalized with PEG using a non-destructive, scalable, chemical reduction method, delivering good water dispersibility (80 and 750 µg mL−1 for large and small layers, respectively). The wide utility of these nucleants has been established across five proteins and three different screens, each of 96 conditions, demonstrating greater effectiveness of the dispersed PEGylated graphenes. Smaller numbers of larger, more crystalline flakes consistently act as better protein nucleants. The delivered nucleant concentration is optimized (0.1 mg mL−1 in the condition), and the performance benchmarked against existing state of the art, molecularly imprinted polymer nucleants. Strikingly, graphene nucleants are effective even when decreasing both the nucleant and protein concentration to unusually low concentrations. The set-up to scale-up nucleant production to liter volumes can provide sufficient material for wide implementation. Together with the optimized crystallization conditions, the results are a step forward toward practical synthesis of a readily accessible “universal” nucleant.
AB - Protein crystallization remains a major bottleneck for the determination of high resolution structures. Nucleants can accelerate the process but should ideally be compatible with high throughput robotic screening. Polyethylene glycol grafted (PEGylated) graphenes can be stabilized in water providing dispensable, nucleant systems. Two graphitic feedstocks are exfoliated and functionalized with PEG using a non-destructive, scalable, chemical reduction method, delivering good water dispersibility (80 and 750 µg mL−1 for large and small layers, respectively). The wide utility of these nucleants has been established across five proteins and three different screens, each of 96 conditions, demonstrating greater effectiveness of the dispersed PEGylated graphenes. Smaller numbers of larger, more crystalline flakes consistently act as better protein nucleants. The delivered nucleant concentration is optimized (0.1 mg mL−1 in the condition), and the performance benchmarked against existing state of the art, molecularly imprinted polymer nucleants. Strikingly, graphene nucleants are effective even when decreasing both the nucleant and protein concentration to unusually low concentrations. The set-up to scale-up nucleant production to liter volumes can provide sufficient material for wide implementation. Together with the optimized crystallization conditions, the results are a step forward toward practical synthesis of a readily accessible “universal” nucleant.
KW - PEGylation
KW - graphene
KW - polymers
KW - protein crystallization
KW - protein nucleants
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131869753&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/adfm.202202596
DO - 10.1002/adfm.202202596
M3 - Article
VL - 32
JO - Advanced Functional Materials
JF - Advanced Functional Materials
SN - 1616-301X
IS - 42
M1 - 2202596
ER -