Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Assembly of the Lipid Bilayer in the ER

Assembly of the Lipid Bilayer in the ER

Biological membranes are more than just a barrier separating cell cytoplasm from the outside environment. They are highly dynamic and help maintain the integrity and physiological stability of the cells as well as membrane-bound organelles. Membranes also play vital roles in cell-to-cell and intracellular communication.
A large chunk of any biological membrane is composed of phospholipids. These lipids have a heterogeneous distribution across different subcellular organelles and even between...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Nearest Neighbor Parameters for Estimating the Folding Stability of RNA Including Pseudouridine.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

Spatial Multiomics Combining Lipids and Gene Expression Using MALDI ISH MSI.

Analytical chemistry·2026

Same author

Prototyping Minimal Extracellular Vesicle Mimetics Using Cell-Free Synthesis.

ACS nano·2026

Same author

Deep learning for RNA secondary structure determination: gauging generalizability and broadening the scope of traditional methods.

RNA (New York, N.Y.)·2026

Same author

Hijacking exosome biogenesis: viral glycoproteins as modular scaffolds for engineering functionalized extracellular vesicles.

Nanoscale·2026

Same author

Deep Learning for RNA Secondary Structure Determination: Gauging Generalizability and Broadening the Scope of Traditional Methods.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same journal

Chlorinated VSLSs Surpass HCFCs in CFC-11-Equivalent Emissions for Ozone Layer Depletion in China.

Nature communications·2026

Same journal

Author Correction: Charge transfer in triphenylamine-tetrazine covalent organic frameworks for solar-driven hydrogen peroxide production.

Nature communications·2026

Same journal

Vegetation browning patterns under compound soil and atmospheric dryness in northern permafrost ecosystems.

Nature communications·2026

Same journal

Voltage imaging of CA1 pyramidal cells and SST+ interneurons reveals stability and plasticity mechanisms of spatial firing.

Nature communications·2026

Same journal

Radical-omics reveals the hydrogen-abstraction pathway of isoprene oxidation.

Nature communications·2026

Same journal

Toughening elastomer via sequentially activated multi-pathway energy dissipation.

Nature communications·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Preparing Protein Producing Synthetic Cells using Cell Free Bacterial Extracts, Liposomes and Emulsion Transfer

Preparing Protein Producing Synthetic Cells using Cell Free Bacterial Extracts, Liposomes and Emulsion Transfer

Published on: April 27, 2020

Designer artificial environments for membrane protein synthesis.

Conary Meyer¹, Alessandra Arizzi¹, Tanner Henson^1,2,3

¹Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.

Nature Communications

|May 10, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

We developed MEMPLEX (Membrane Protein Learning and Expression), an AI tool that designs artificial environments for synthesizing difficult membrane proteins. This method accelerates the study of the "dark" proteome and enables new therapeutic discoveries.

More Related Videos

Author Spotlight: Optimizing CFPS Systems for Synthetic Cell Construction

Author Spotlight: Optimizing CFPS Systems for Synthetic Cell Construction

Published on: April 19, 2024

Author Spotlight: Tackling Challenges in Synthetic Cell Engineering

Author Spotlight: Tackling Challenges in Synthetic Cell Engineering

Published on: April 12, 2024

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Preparing Protein Producing Synthetic Cells using Cell Free Bacterial Extracts, Liposomes and Emulsion Transfer

Preparing Protein Producing Synthetic Cells using Cell Free Bacterial Extracts, Liposomes and Emulsion Transfer

Published on: April 27, 2020

Author Spotlight: Optimizing CFPS Systems for Synthetic Cell Construction

Author Spotlight: Optimizing CFPS Systems for Synthetic Cell Construction

Published on: April 19, 2024

Author Spotlight: Tackling Challenges in Synthetic Cell Engineering

Author Spotlight: Tackling Challenges in Synthetic Cell Engineering

Published on: April 12, 2024

Area of Science:

Synthetic biology
Artificial intelligence
Biochemistry

Background:

Cell-free protein synthesis offers control over cellular mechanisms but faces challenges, especially for membrane proteins due to complex lipid-protein interactions.
Artificial environments are crucial for understanding and engineering protein synthesis, but designing them for membrane proteins is difficult.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a machine learning-driven platform (MEMPLEX) for rapidly designing artificial synthesis environments tailored for membrane protein expression.
To overcome the challenges in synthesizing membrane proteins in cell-free systems by optimizing chemical-protein-lipid interactions.

Main Methods:

Utilized machine learning and a fluorescent reporter system to generate and screen over 20,000 artificial chemical-protein environments for 28 different membrane proteins.
Analyzed the impact of lipid types, chemical conditions, chaperone proteins, and protein structures on membrane protein synthesis efficiency.
Identified a predictive metric based on amino acid hydrophobicity for successful membrane protein synthesis in artificial environments.

Main Results:

MEMPLEX successfully designed novel artificial environments capable of synthesizing previously intractable membrane proteins.
The study captured the complex interplay between lipids, chemicals, chaperones, and protein structure in membrane protein synthesis.
A quantitative hydrophobicity metric was identified to predict synthesis success in artificial environments.

Conclusions:

MEMPLEX provides a powerful AI-guided approach for rapidly creating optimized environments for membrane protein synthesis.
This work facilitates the study of the "dark" proteome and opens new avenues for discovering therapeutics and synthetic biology applications.
The findings represent a significant advancement in AI-driven design of synthetic environments for complex biological molecules.