Application note: Monitoring of SMALP-nanodisc formation by microfluidic diffusional sizing

Styrene–maleic acid (SMA) copolymers have become popular tools used in membraneprotein research as they can extract both lipids and membrane proteins from cellular membranes while preserving the bilayer structure of the membrane in so-called nanodiscs.

Microfluidic diffusional sizing (MDS) demonstrates how the SMA-to-lipid ratio controls styrene–maleic acid lipid particle (SMALP) size, which can be a crucial parameter in the characterisation of embedded membrane proteins. Moreover, MDS offers the opportunity to measure nanodisc size as well as protein complex formation using the same sample.