Hy-Q Colloquium by Lise Arleth, Professor, X-ray and Neutron Science, NBI

Abstract:

Membrane proteins are the physical targets of around 70% of all medical drugs, but we know surprisingly little about both the membrane proteins, their surrounding membrane and the interplay between the two. In my group, we combine Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) and Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) with different approaches for handling the membrane protein samples as well as with advanced modeling based data analysis methods to enable the investigation of the structure of a general membrane protein as well as it’s surrounding lipid membrane environment.  I will discuss how (and why) we do this and show examples of the results obtained for three structurally very different membrane protein types: Bacteriorhodopsin, Aquaporin and Cytochrome P450. I hope to convince you that the small-angle scattering based approach holds unique perspectives for investigating both the flexibility and dynamics of membrane proteins in a native-like lipid environment.