POSTECH professor's research group develops breakthrough method

A POSTECH professor’s research group develops a breakthrough method for extracting membrane proteins

A research group including Professor Kim Ki-Moon of the Department of Chemistry, Lee Don-Wook (Ph.D. candidate), Professor Ryu Sung-Ho of the Division of Molecular and Life Science at POSTECH and NOVACELL Technology, a Bio-Venture, has succeeded in separating cell membrane proteins from a cell using a 'cucurbituril', a pumpkin-shaped coreless compound. The result was published in the latest online edition of Nature Chemistry.

The study finds that using a cucurbituril has many advantages over the commonly used avidin-biotin pair system in extracting plasma membrane proteins for disease analysis. The new method developed by the research group at POSTECH uses a cucurbituril-ferrocene pair system to selectively isolate plasma membrane proteins from their cells. It is shown to be more efficient in capturing membrane proteins with a much lower possibility of potential contamination.

Professor Kim stated: "This research makes the first case proving that a pumpkin-shaped coreless compound can be used not only for the basic biological research but also for various areas such as disease treatment and diagnosis". In particular, this breakthrough method is expected to change the paradigm in biotechnology field in that it can not only analyze disease but also cure patients without any side effects.

As is the often the case with major scientific achievements, the research team had to go through numerous trials and errors. However, nothing could beat them who even returned weekend and holidays. Professor Kim stated: "We will continue to advance the research to be applied to different fields and to make joint efforts with biological section to develop new medicines."