Nanopore Array Designed to Provide Simultaneous Tests in Search for New Drugs

Scientists in Germany are utilizing an innovative, automatable lab-on-chip device for high-throughput screening of sensitive membrane proteins.

Membrane-associated receptors, channels, and transporters are among the most important drug targets for the pharmaceutical industry. The hunt for new drugs is similar to looking for a needle in a haystack. Therefore, new analytic techniques are required that facilitate the simultaneous screening of a large library of compounds across a variety of membrane proteins.

However, this class of technology is still at the early stages of development. The group of researchers who devised the technique included Prof. Dr. Robert Tampé, from the Institute of Biochemistry, Biocenter Goethe Universität (Frankfurt, Germany), in collaboration with investigators from the Walter Schottky Institute at Technical University Munich (Germany).

The study was published online October 27, 2010, in the journal Nano Letters, where the scientists described the analysis of membrane proteins on a nanofabricated chip surface that contains nearly 50,000 nanopores. These pores are covered by a freely suspended lipid membrane that incorporates the proteins to be analyzed. Because the lipid membrane is free of organic solvents and the proteins do not touch the solid support, the fragile structure and therefore function of the proteins is maintained.

The system can be used to monitor the transport kinetics of membrane proteins by fluorescence microscopy, according to the scientists. Due to the parallel design of the nanopore chip, a large number of samples can be analyzed simultaneously.

Related Links:
Institute of Biochemistry, Biocenter Goethe Universidad
Walter Schottky Institute at Technical University Munich