Northern Michigan University1, Chemistry, Marquette, MI 49855 Colorado State University2, Chemistry, Fort Collins, CO 80523
G-Protein Coupled cell membrane receptors are the target of approximately 60-65% of all current pharmaceutical agents in development. Thus, elucidating how these receptors work at the molecular level is crucial to continue to develop new, novel pharmaceutics. Single Particle Tracking (SPT) studies of this type of cell membrane receptor will allow such an understanding to be gained by examining the effect that the local membrane environment exerts on cell membrane surface receptors, e.g. Luteinizing Hormone Receptor. SPT is a technique that allows one to determine in vivo a molecule’s position as a function of time on the surface of a cell membrane using anti-body conjugated 40 nm Au beads bound to the desired molecule. All measurements were performed via optical light microscopy. Following subsequent data analysis, SPT allowed the type of lateral diffusive behavior observed to be determined, and allowed the experimenters to infer physical interactions between the cell membrane receptor and other physical elements of the cell membrane during diffusion.
J.J. Drinane was supported by NSF-REU grant EEC- 0649263
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