Mesoporous Metal–Organic Frameworks as Effective Nucleating Agents in Protein Crystallography

Abstract

Mesoporous metal–organic frameworks (mesoMOFs) have gained some attention as protein immobilization agents. Herein, and for the first time, three model proteins (lysozyme, trypsin, and albumin) were used to show that crystallization is effectively induced when the protein is immobilized inside the mesoMOF, with this occurring for lysozyme, while trypsin and albumin were size-excluded. It is shown that heterogeneous nucleation is truly remarkable in the case of lysozyme with a strong adhesion to the mesoMOF surface. These findings suggest that the ability to fix the target protein with a molecular-scale periodicity constitutes a significant advantage of mesoMOFs over other nucleating agents.