Boon To Drug Discovery: Interactions Within Membrane Complexes Can Be Maintained In Vacuum Of Mass Spectrometer
Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 19:21
in Biology & Nature
Against currently held dogma, scientists have revealed that the interactions within membrane complexes can be maintained intact in the vacuum of a mass spectrometer. Their research is published in Science Express. The researchers were surprised to discover that membrane complexes could remain associated as it has always been assumed that they would not survive once transferred to the alien conditions inside the mass spectrometer. This new finding will enable scientists to investigate membrane complexes with from a variety of sources and with a range of small molecules. Since about 60% of all drug targets are membrane proteins this is a significant discovery.