title: Serial Femtosecond Crystallography of Membrane Proteins.
abstract: Membrane proteins, including G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), constitute the most important drug targets. The increasing number of targets requires new structural information, which has proven tremendously challenging due to the difficulties in growing diffraction-quality crystals. Recent developments of serial femtosecond crystallography at X-ray free electron lasers combined with the use of membrane-mimetic gel-like matrix of lipidic cubic phase (LCP-SFX) for crystal growth and delivery hold significant promise to accelerate structural studies of membrane proteins. This chapter describes the development and current status of the LCP-SFX technology and elaborates its future role in structural biology of membrane proteins.
authors.affiliation: School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.|Center for Applied Structural Discovery at the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1604, USA.
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Center for Applied Structural Discovery at the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1604, USA.|Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Weierstall
authors.affiliation: Bridge Institute, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.|Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
authors.forename: Vadim
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cherezov
authors.affiliation: School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA. w.liu@asu.edu.|Center for Applied Structural Discovery at the Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287-1604, USA. w.liu@asu.edu.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D003460:Crystallization / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004583:Electrons; D006801:Humans; D007834:Lasers; D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000528:radiation effects; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled / Q000737:chemistry; D017356:Synchrotrons; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D043562:Receptors, G-Protein-Coupled
keywords: G protein-coupled receptors; LCP injector; LCP-SFX; Lipidic cubic phase; Membrane proteins; Serial femtosecond crystallography; X-ray free electron laser