Lipid-protein interactions
Protein-lipid interactions are essential to membrane protein structure and function. For example cholesterol is found in eukaryotic membranes and is known to interact with membrane proteins such as G-protein coupled receptors. We are interested in investigating the effect of different lipids on the activation of GPCRs as well as the interaction between membrane proteins and the membrane mimicking environment. The latter can be investigated using specially developed lipids which are selectively fluorinated at particular positions enabling interaction between the lipid tail and the membrane protein to be detected by NMR.
For more details see:
A generalized approach for NMR studies of lipid-protein interactions based on sparse fluorination of acyl chains.
Alfredo De Biasio, Alain Ibáñez de Opakua, Mark J. Bostock, Daniel Nietlispach, Tammo Diercks and Francisco J. Blanco, Chemical Communications (2018) 54, 7306-7309
(doi: 10.1039/C8CC02483A)