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Updated: Jan 30, 2026

Crystallizing Membrane Proteins for Structure Determination using Lipidic Mesophases
Published on: November 21, 2010
Structure and cleavage of monosodium urate monohydrate crystals
Rachael G E Molloy1, Weihao Sun, Jialu Chen
1EaStChem, School of Chemistry, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9ST, UK. wzhou@st-andrews.ac.uk.
Abstract:
The structural study of monosodium urate monohydrate, as the principal component in gout stones, reveals that a simple and biocompatible way to break down the crystals into polymerised molecules at pH 7.4 (the acidity of normal human blood) is to peel them off along the [001] direction by sonication.
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