Center for the Structural Biology of Membrane Proteins
Welcome
Welcome to the website of the Research Excellence Fund's Center for the Structural Biology of Membrane Proteins (CSBMP) at Michigan State University. This website contains information about the research, researchers, education, and technology transfer activities of the CSBMP.
Cytochrome c oxidase from R. sphaeroides
Why a center for membrane protein structure?
With the completion of the Human Genome and the sequencing of other scientifically and commercially important organisms, the focus of discovery has now shifted towards determining the structures and functions of the gene products. Despite the relative success of proteomics and structural genomics, analysis of the membrane protein class of gene products lags far behind those of soluble proteins because expression and purification of membrane proteins is difficult. Living cells carry out many vital functions using membranes that consist mainly of a lipid bilayer and membrane proteins. Although they make up 25-30% of the human genome, they represent only around 3% of the known crystal structures.
Such proteins represent a neglected mother lode of commercial and research potential. Membrane proteins, which include G-protein coupled receptors, ion channels and other membrane bound enzymes, make up about 30-50% of the top drug targets. So important is this topic to the pharmaceutical industry that they have already established collaborative projects with academics and biotech firms to develop methods to express and crystallize many different membrane proteins, including G-protein coupled receptors. However, with 30,000 or more genes in the human genome and similar numbers in other organisms, it is obvious that characterization of these proteins, even when limited to membrane proteins, will require systematic and efficient approaches to ensure that structural analyses can take place.