A research team led by Professor Kimoon Kim, a graduate student Don-Wook Kim, Prof. Sung Ho Ryu and POSTECH’s bio-venture company NOVACELL technology succeeded in selectively isolating plasma membrane proteins using a synthetic compound cucurbituril. Cucurbituril, which is named by its resemblance to a pumpkin, is fully expected to be a useful biotechnological application tool for disease analysis and treatment.
The research, published online on Nature Chemistry on Dec. 19, proved that this isolation method using cucurbituril-ferrocene (Fc) produces higher chemical and physical stability than the streptavidin-biotin system, which has been used for biochemical research.
For new drug discoveries, understanding membrane proteomics by efficiently separating proteins in the membrane is crucial. Streptavidin-biotin system has been used for this but had shortcomings of potential contamination, low stability and conditional restrictions.
The ultrastable synthetic binding pair system using cucurbituril is expected to provide enhanced sensitivity and specificity in plasma membrane protein analysis and as well as cellular imaging and sensor technologies.
