A technology has been developed that can capture the very brief moment when protein reactions occur in high resolution.
A joint research team led by Professor Jinjung Kang from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Department of Chemistry and Professor Wonhee Lee from the KAIST Department of Physics announced on the 24th that they have developed a new analytical device capable of precisely observing protein structural changes in 6 ms (milliseconds, with 1 ms being one-thousandth of a second). The results of this research were published in the international journal Advanced Functional Materials on Jan. 28.
Proteins change structure in a very short time while interacting with other substances. Such rapid changes are critical information for understanding biological phenomena and developing new drugs, but existing cryogenic electron microscopes require more than 10 seconds to cool the samples, making it difficult to capture intermediate stages. Although devices have been introduced to address this issue, there was the limitation that sample consumption was more than 10 times greater than existing methods, and the minimum reaction time was also over 10 ms.
To solve this problem, the research team created a new device that can rapidly mix and cool as soon as the protein reaction begins. This device, made using ultra-thin parylene material, can mix protein and reactants within 0.5 ms and cool them within 6 ms to verify the reaction state. Additionally, the amount of sample used has been reduced to one-third of what it was before, and the device has been designed as an integrated unit to enhance the accuracy and reliability of experiments.
Using this device, the research team analyzed the process of protein binding with single-stranded DNA. The experimental results showed that much more precise and uniform data could be obtained compared to before, and the consistency of the reaction results improved as well. Notably, the difference in filament length, an indicator used to assess the accuracy of protein reactions, was reduced to less than half, significantly enhancing measurement stability.
Professor Jinjung Kang noted, “This research has practically realized existing techniques and suggested a wide range of potential applications of parylene thin-film devices in various life science and pharmaceutical fields, including structural biology, new drug development, enzyme reaction studies, and biosensor development.”
References
Advanced Functional Materials (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202418224