Paul Scherrer Institute

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Chemistry

A Practical Guide on Coupling a Scanning Mobility Sizer and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (SMPS-ICPMS)

Mohamed Tarik¹, Debora Foppiano^1,2, Adrian Hess^1,3, Christian Ludwig^1,2

¹Bioenergy and Catalysis Laboratory (LBK), Energy and Environment Research Division (ENE), Paul Scherrer Institute, ²Environmental Engineering Institute (IIE), School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), École; Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), ³Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science ETH Zurich

In this work a practical guide is provided, describing the different steps to establish the coupling of SMPS and ICPMS systems, and how to use them. Three descriptive examples are presented.

Biochemistry

Strategic Screening and Characterization of the Visual GPCR-mini-G Protein Signaling Complex for Successful Crystallization

Filip Pamula^1,2, Jonas Mühle¹, Alain Blanc³, Rony Nehmé⁴, Patricia C. Edwards⁴, Christopher G. Tate⁴, Ching-Ju Tsai¹

¹Laboratory of Biomolecular Research, Paul Scherrer Institute, ²Department of Biology, ETH Zürich, ³Center for Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, Paul Scherrer Institute, ⁴Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Council

This report describes screening of different detergents for preparing the visual GPCR, rhodopsin, and its complex with mini-G_o. Biochemical methods characterizing the quality of the complex at different stages during purification are demonstrated. This protocol can be generalized to other membrane protein complexes for their future structural studies.