Protein Stability Analysis Made Easy With MoltenProt Software
Do you know if your protein is happy? MoltenProt, a program developed by Vadim Kotov at CSSB, offers robust analysis of high-throughput protein thermal unfolding data.
A happy protein is a stable protein. Determining the stability of your protein prior to starting crystallography and electron cryo-microscopy experiments is now easier than ever thanks to a new software developed by CSSB scientist Vadim Kotov (UKE, currently, EMBL). The software, MoltenProt, is unique in that it offers three different models of protein unfolding and introduces measures of protein stability that capture all the information available from NanoDSF experimental data. The analysis and methods behind MoltenProt were recently published in Protein Science.
IMAGE: Copyright Vadim Kotov, CC BY-SA 2.0
Image created with UCSF ChimeraX (rbvi.ucsf.edu/chimerax) and Inkscape (inkscape.org)
A simple user-friendly interface makes MoltenProt easy to operate and the software was extensively validated on several well-known membrane proteins and protein complexes. Thomas Marlovits (UKE), the paper’s corresponding author, reached out to labs around the world asking them to provide samples. “We received over 40 different protein samples from labs across Europe and the United States as well as some interesting samples from other CSSB scientists,” explains Marlovits “This extensive testing has made MoltenProt robust software that provides reliable data for a wide range of samples.”
Importantly, MoltenProt is an open source software tool which means it is freely available for download and can be changed and adapted based on each users individual needs. “I’m happy to be sharing MoltenProt with the scientific community and hope that wider use will result in further refinements of the software,” explains Vadim “I am confident that MoltenProt will improve the systematic assessment of sample stability and ultimately help generate better structures and faster results.”
To download MoltenProt please visit: http://www.marlovitslab.org
If you have any questions about MoltenProt please do not hesitate to reach out to Vadim Kotov directly: vadim.kotov(at)cssb-hamburg(dot)de
Reference:
Kotov V, Mlynek G, Vesper O, Pletzer M, Wald J, Teixeira-Duarte CM, Celia H, Garcia-Alai M, Nussberger S, Buchanan SK, Morais-Cabral JH, Loew C, Djinovic-Carugo K, Marlovits TC (2020) In-depth Interrogation of Protein Thermal Unfolding Data with MoltenProt. Protein Sci. 2020 doi: 10.1002/pro.3986
