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- Wells, Daniel J., et al.
(författare)
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Observations of phase changes in monoolein during high viscous injection
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Synchrotron Radiation. - : International Union Of Crystallography. - 0909-0495 .- 1600-5775. ; 29:3, s. 602-614
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Serial crystallography of membrane proteins often employs high-viscosity injectors (HVIs) to deliver micrometre-sized crystals to the X-ray beam. Typically, the carrier medium is a lipidic cubic phase (LCP) media, which can also be used to nucleate and grow the crystals. However, despite the fact that the LCP is widely used with HVIs, the potential impact of the injection process on the LCP structure has not been reported and hence is not yet well understood. The self-assembled structure of the LCP can be affected by pressure, dehydration and temperature changes, all of which occur during continuous flow injection. These changes to the LCP structure may in turn impact the results of X-ray diffraction measurements from membrane protein crystals. To investigate the influence of HVIs on the structure of the LCP we conducted a study of the phase changes in monoolein/water and monoolein/buffer mixtures during continuous flow injection, at both atmospheric pressure and under vacuum. The reservoir pressure in the HVI was tracked to determine if there is any correlation with the phase behaviour of the LCP. The results indicated that, even though the reservoir pressure underwent (at times) significant variation, this did not appear to correlate with observed phase changes in the sample stream or correspond to shifts in the LCP lattice parameter. During vacuum injection, there was a three-way coexistence of the gyroid cubic phase, diamond cubic phase and lamellar phase. During injection at atmospheric pressure, the coexistence of a cubic phase and lamellar phase in the monoolein/water mixtures was also observed. The degree to which the lamellar phase is formed was found to be strongly dependent on the co-flowing gas conditions used to stabilize the LCP stream. A combination of laboratory-based optical polarization microscopy and simulation studies was used to investigate these observations.
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| 2. |
- Gormley, Adam J., et al.
(författare)
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Layer-by-Layer Self-Assembly of Polymer Films and Capsules through Coiled-Coil Peptides
- 2015
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Ingår i: Chemistry of Materials. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 0897-4756 .- 1520-5002. ; 27:16, s. 5820-5824
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The layer-by-layer (LbL) technique is a simple and robust process for fabricating functional multilayer thin films. Here, we report the use of de novo designed polypeptides that self-assemble into coiled-coil structures (four-helix bundles) as a driving force for specific multilayer assembly. These pH- (sensitive between pH 4 and 7) and enzyme-responsive polypeptides were conjugated to polymers, and the LbL assembly of the polymer-peptide conjugates allowed the deposition of up to four polymer-peptide layers on planar surfaces and colloidal substrates. Stable hollow capsules were obtained, and by taking advantage of the peptides susceptibility to specific enzymatic cleavage, release of encapsulated cargo within the carriers can be triggered within 2 h in the presence of matrix metalloproteinase-7. The enormous diversity of materials that can form highly controllable and programmable coiled-coil interactions creates new opportunities and allows further exploration of the multilayer assembly and the formation of carrier capsules with unique functional properties.
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