SAB NewsWinning Insights into Protein PurificationPosted 9/24/2004 We frequently seek advice from our members about future directions in life science research, such as with our latest protein science study. We wanted to characterize the standard practices and identify current schools of thought in protein science research, including: • Types and classes of proteins most frequently investigated • Opinions on protein purification technologies • Suppliers, techniques, and instrumentation most valuable to one's research One of the questions we asked was, "What do you perceive to be the greatest obstacle to protein purification today, especially as it relates to the purification of many samples simultaneously? Do you expect the solution to come from life science suppliers?" Nearly 300 members contributed many insightful comments on this topic, but here is what our $20 Amazon gift certificate recipients had to say: "Compared to DNA, proteins are very different from each other in their physical and chemical properties. DNA lends itself easily to high-throughput approaches whereas proteins want to be treated individually. A successful approach to high throughput analysis of proteins has to take this into account. Proteomics is still limited to methods that make proteins equal (e.g., by "giving" them a uniform charge with SDS). More demanding research (e.g., high-throughput crystallography) must take the individuality of proteins into account; otherwise it will fail to give results for a significant portion of the initial starting material." —Michael, Post Doctoral Fellow "From my point of view, the biggest purification challenges are in the field of membrane proteins. To extract a "new" membrane protein in a native, functional state, usually a new method has to be developed. It all starts with choosing the right detergent... and as behavior of different membrane proteins differs a lot, automatic screening and purification of native membrane proteins (as opposed to denatured ones that can be and have been used in proteomics approaches) seems out of reach for scientists and suppliers." —Dirk, Post Doctoral Fellow "The greatest obstacle in relation to processing many samples simultaneously is keeping up with the vast numbers of samples that need to be processed and the resulting fractionations/aliquots containing the "target" protein(s). Since this is basically an informatics question the answer will initially have to come from a "Life Science Supplier" (LSS), rather than a lab. This is not a protocol question but rather one of managing the "details". It is unlikely that a lab person will come up with the informatics system that an LSS could devise. The time constraints typically forbid it. But, the implementation must come from a prominent lab in the field that can widely publicize its usefulness for the problem the lab was having. Find that lab, and the product from the LSS will take off." —Berry, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator Congratulations to our winners and thank you to everyone who participated. |
|
