Saturday, April 14, 2018
Cryo-electron Microscopy (Scaffolding) = Proteins in detail
Scaffolding method uses a cryo-electron microscopy finally being able to see the small proteins inside cells. Until now that method did not yield results. At the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) a team led by Todd Yeates said, "This new method should be useful broadly". They were able to attach 12 copies of DARPin (a small protein) on a cube-shaped molecular cage, creating a larger version in a sense allowing them to view it by cryo-electron microscopy. Being able to finally visualize small proteins will help with figuring out how the disease causing ones work and "how it does what it does", said Yeates. This advancement will eventually foster new pharmaceuticals and treatments.