Membrane Protein Laboratory | What does the MPL offer?

1.1 The MPL Facility

  • The MPL is a user facility open to applications from any research group interested in learning more about our methods for crystallising and solving structures of membrane proteins.
  • The laboratory will operate in a similar way to a synchrotron beamline, with users visiting for periods of a few days up to several months, depending on the project.
  • Users could also make repeat visits to the MPL, depending on what they project requires.
  • Applications will be reviewed by the MPL Scientific Advisory Board.
  • The MPL provides training and access to equipment for visitors on site at Diamond.
  • Current staffing levels do not allow us to provide a full crystallisation service, users will need to visit Diamond and set up their experiments themselves, under the supervision of MPL staff.

1.2 Equipment

The MPL has a variety of useful equipment for expression, purification and crystal handling, including:

  • a fully integrated crystallisation system with a liquid handler, a nanodrop robot, and two imagers/hotel systems for 750 plates per hotel.
  • a fluidigm crystalliser and imager for microfluidic crystallisation plate preparation and visualisation
  • a PX scanner for testing potential crystals for X-ray diffraction in situ in crystallisation plates.
  • the Caffrey cubic phase crystallisation robot.
  • the TTP Mosquito
  • the TDAmax system. The TDA has four advanced detectors for macromolecular characterisation in: (1) Absolute molecular weight, (2) Aggregation, (3) Protein size and density, (4) Oligomeric composition, (5) A2 Second virial coefficient 

Arrow iconMore about the equipment available in the MPL at Diamond.

1.3 User Training

  • MPL staff are available for discussions on all crystallographic projects and will provide advice on MPL visitors projects.
  • Visitors to the MPL will be trained by Tian Geng, Mattew Jennions, Momi Iwata and Isabel Moraes.
  • Isabel Moraes is the MPL facillities Co-ordinator/group leader. She has a vast experience in protein crystallography, data collection, robotics and lab management. She has also knowledge in drug discovery.
  • Momi has worked on many of the membrane protein projects in So's lab over the last 10 years and has a real intuition on how best to crystallise membrane proteins.
  • Tian Geng, Mattew Jennions, are our robotics technicians,  they are an experts in working with the crystallisation robots and will be available to assist visitors in setting up crystallisation trials on the robotic systems.
  • Dr David Drew is our expert on expression and purification of membrane proteins and he will advise visitors on these aspects of their projects.
  • Dr Alex Cameron is our expert crystallographer, having recently solved the structure of the MHP1 hydantoin transporter. Alex has experience of solving structures at low resolution and he can advise visitors on solving structures if they have low resolution data or difficult crystallographic problems.
  • Other members of the group at Diamond will also provide suggestions, advice and help.

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