Citation | Tate is a pioneer in structure determination of membrane protein receptors and transporters, many of which modulate key physiological functions such as heart rate or stomach acid secretion, and represent important drug targets. Eukaryotic membrane protein structure determination has been notoriously difficult. Tate has succeeded where others have failed, largely due to the novel methods he has developed. His most important innovation, now adopted by many others, is a method named conformational thermostabilisation, which uses systematic mutagenesis to obtain extremely stable structures that can be crystallised and analysed by X-ray crystallography, yet retain their key pharmacological properties. He has applied these novel methods with great success to obtain atomic models for several G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) including adenosine A2A, neurotensin and beta-adrenergic receptors, and is now extending this approach to neurotransmitter transporters and ion channels.Tate is a pioneer in structure determination of membrane protein receptors and transporters, many of which modulate key physiological functions such as heart rate or stomach acid secretion, and represent important drug targets. Eukaryotic membrane protein structure determination has been notoriously difficult. Tate has succeeded where others have failed, largely due to the novel methods he has developed. His most important innovation, now adopted by many others, is a method named conformational thermostabilisation, which uses systematic mutagenesis to obtain extremely stable structures that can be crystallised and analysed by X-ray crystallography, yet retain their key pharmacological properties. He has applied these novel methods with great success to obtain atomic models for several G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) including adenosine A2A, neurotensin and beta-adrenergic receptors, and is now extending this approach to neurotransmitter transporters and ion channels. |