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A feast of membrane protein structures in Madrid
Author(s) -
Tate Christopher G
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
embo reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.584
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1469-3178
pISSN - 1469-221X
DOI - 10.1093/embo-reports/kve116
Subject(s) - chemistry , biology
The Centre for International Meetings on Biology was established in 1992 as a component of a private foundation: Fundacion Juan March. It organizes workshops and scientific activities that are held throughout the year and cover a wide range of topics in modern biology. At these meetings, about 20 invited speakers, who are actively involved in the different fields, present their latest results to a small number of participants. This meeting format promotes discussion and a rich exchange of results and ideas.![][1] Determining the atomic‐resolution structure of integral membrane proteins is an adventure for those with a strong stomach, but the results from the last 3 years formed a veritable feast of structures at the recent meeting in Madrid (February 12–14, 2001). Structure is an essential prerequisite to understanding how membrane proteins function and, in addition, how their functions can be modified by small molecules. This is of paramount importance in the pharmaceutical industry, which produces many drugs that bind to membrane proteins (e.g. Prozac and Imigram), and recognizes the potential of many recently identified G protein‐coupled receptors, ion channels and transporters as targets for future drugs. This conference discussed many issues that are critically important for membrane protein structure determination, namely increasing the expression levels of complex mammalian membrane proteins and making high‐quality two‐dimensional (2D) or three‐dimensional (3D) crystals; some of these issues were covered by a recent Workshop discussed in a previous report (Thomas, 2001). The major part of the Juan March meeting described how recent structural information on channels, pumps and transporters has led to detailed models of how ions and molecules cross a membrane, and is the subject of this report.The aquaglyceroporin family currently comprises more than 200 members, found in eubacteria, plants and animals, which transport a variety of substrates including water, by AQP1, and … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif