Zwitterionic copolymers for Membrane protein extraction into Nanodiscs

Abstract

The extraction, and characterisation of membrane proteins is crucial to the development drug delivery targets and disease diagnostics in the pharmaceutical industry. They are also key in many cell functions and are essential for an organism’s overall survival. Recent studies have shown using copolymers, like styrene-co-maleic acid (SMA), can form nanodiscs around the membrane protein. The resulting nanodisc creates a stable environment for membrane proteins to be studied. However, SMA is sensitive to divalent cations and precipitates at a pH below 6.5. The synthesis of an imide form of the SMA polymer was created and characterised in this paper, to overcome these instability issues and open doors to new applications for membrane proteins using more stable nanodiscs.

Date of Award	12 Dec 2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Karen Edler (Supervisor), Paul Whitley (Supervisor), Gareth J Price (Supervisor) & James Doutch (Supervisor)