糖心视频

(糖心视频) 鈥擜 team of researchers working in Japan has developed a method for allowing X-ray crystallography to work on molecular groups that have not first been crystallized. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they built small scaffolds that resemble pockets for the molecules to rest in, securing them in place and allowing for X-ray crystallography analysis.

Over the years, X-ray crystallography has become one of the more important tools of modern research鈥攊t allows for the shape of molecules to be determined, which is important because molecular shape determines how different molecules can bind together. One roadblock to its use in some areas has been the difficulty in getting some molecule groups to crystallize鈥攁 necessary prelude to using X-ray crystallography because it causes the molecules to sit still in a way that allows them to be analyzed. In this new research effort, the team in Japan has found a way to allow researchers to use X-ray crystallography without having to get molecule groups to first crystallize.

They did it by constructing a scaffold of metal-organic frameworks to form octahedral cages, or pockets鈥攖hey pull in molecules and hold them in a stable orientation which in turn allows them to be studied using X-ray crystallography. The team describes their structures as "crystalline sponges" that pull in small quantities of molecules and after a short stabilization period, hold them in place.

The researchers tested their new method by correctly determining the shape of several molecules whose shape was already known. One molecule shape in particular鈥攎iyakosyne A鈥攚as discerned by their method, which proved its feasibility as researchers have never been able to get it to crystallize and thus be studied using X-ray crystallography.

The only drawback seen thus far with the new technique is that it's limited to molecules of a certain size range鈥攑roteins for example, are made of molecules too large to fit in the cages the team developed. Because of that, the researchers are currently looking at ways to create larger cages and hope to one day develop a means of allowing for capturing and holding molecules of any size.