Protein-Protein Interaction Assay by X-ray Crystallography Service

Creative Biolabs currently pushes out X-ray crystallography with rational designs, facilities, and expertise to assist scientists to crystallize biological macromolecules and determine their three-dimensional structures. Based on the technique of X-ray crystallography, Creative Biolabs can obtain interactions between attractive proteins from customers. This precise imaging technology not only reveals the best visualization of protein structures at the atomic level but also accelerates the comprehending of protein’s interaction and function.

A Brief Introduction

X-ray crystallography is essentially a form of extreme high-resolution microscopy and represents the fact that X-ray is diffracted by crystal. With X-rays, the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation is around 0.1 nm to 1 Å long, which is just the right size to measure the distance between atoms in a molecule. Besides, the specificity of protein’s active and binding sites is completely dependent on the precise conformations of molecules. That’s why X-ray crystallography is chosen.

Protein-Protein Interaction Assay by X-ray Crystallography Service Fig.1 An X-ray diffraction pattern of a crystallized enzyme.

Before running this assay, a purified protein sample at high concentration is crystallized. X-rays strike the single crystal exposed to a diffractometer, where the crystalline atoms cause a beam of incident rays to diffract into numerous specific directions. As the crystal is gradually rotated, the intensities and angles of diffractive beams are recorded and fed into a computer, which utilizes mathematical equation with Fourier transforms to calculate the position of each atom and then produces a 3D digital image of electron density. Lately, a model of the protein is constructed, adjusted and refined by the electron density maps and X-ray diffraction patterns.

Protein-Protein Interaction Assay by X-ray Crystallography Service Fig.2 Overview of X-ray crystallographic method.

Features and Benefits

Crystallography can reliably provide the answer to structure related questions, from global folds to atomic details of bonding and the information from X-ray diffraction has enhanced the availability of protein structures and development on medicinal chemistry design greatly.

Functions of X-ray crystallography

The complete and full atomic coordinates of crystal
Gaining the knowledge of molecular 3D structure
Identifying some unknown compounds
Showing how proteins interact with other molecules
Conformational changes in case of enzymes
Clearly determination of absolute stereochemistry (chiral molecules)
Some ligand binding analysis
Suggestions on novel drug projects targeting a specific target protein

Strengths on X-ray crystallography

The only definite method for total molecular characterization
No separate standards required
Non-destructive method
No size and solubility limitation for the molecule or complex (compared to NMR technique)
Detailed crystal structure, including unit the cell dimensions, the exact connectivity of atoms, chemical bond, bond lengths and angles, disorder, site-ordering information
Atomic structure containing a huge amount of data from the crystallized pure protein
Elastic types of X-ray techniques in various applications, such as single-crystal X-ray diffraction, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), powder diffraction and X-ray fiber diffraction

The utilization of X-ray crystallography to measure protein structure has led to a significant breakthrough in the area of structural biochemistry and specifically provides extensional insights on protein-protein interactions within cellular processes.

X-ray crystallography provides a novel sight to explore interesting interactions of various proteins. The lab teams in Creative Biolabs have efficiently achieved high-resolution protein structure determination via X-ray crystallography to facilitate both structural biology and modern medical advancements. Armed with the results of X-ray crystallography services from Creative Biolabs, including sample purification, crystallization, and structure solution, combined with experienced operators and statistics analysis, clients will be guided to detail subsequent studies of relevant protein or complex crystals at structural, kinetic and thermodynamic aspects.

All listed services and products are For Research Use Only. Do Not use in any diagnostic or therapeutic applications.

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