French Pressure Cell Press: Obscure Science Machinery
Hi Steemit scientists and enthusiasts,
I wanted to share an obscure method of the protein purification process. This it might be the last time I use this machine before I graduate.
The French pressure cell press was most commonly used in the 70's, and has since been replaced with less bulky equipment; however, the efficiency of the French press is hard to compete with. I dont think many, if any, are currently in production.
In order study the biochemistry of a protein, the protein of interest needs to be synthesized, and then purified. This post will be briefly covering one step of the protein purification process - preparation of a cell lysate by French press.
First, we cultivate a lot of E.coli cells that have been instructed to synthesize our protein of interest (A topic for another blog). The cells are put into the pressure cell which can handle 20,000 PSI...
A hydraulic press forces the E.coli cells through an aperture that is smaller than the cell can pass through whole. The cell membranes are disrupted, and all of the cytosolic proteins are collected. The cell lysate is then put into a centerfuge, and spun at 14,000 RPM to separate the cell membranes from the soluble protein.
The next step in the protein purification process is to separate the protein of interest from the other endogenous E.coli proteins with column chromatography a Nickel-NTA resin. I will cover in another post...
Thanks for checking this out. If you are a fellow scientist, let me know how you lyse cells in the comments...
-The Scientist
Hello @thescientist, and many thanks for offering this community a glimpse of your lab processes! I'm daily growing more aware of another relevant Steemit dimension: it incentivates the encyclopedism, in each of us :-)
Ah, would you have data about the "French" adjective?: is it related to a French patent, a region, a research institute, the fact that this device was (or is) commonly used in France...?
it appears Dr. CS French wrote the first paper on the topic in 1955...
"French, C. S., & Milner, H. W. (1955). [9] Disintegration of bacteria and small particles by high-pressure extrusion. Methods in enzymology, 1, 64-67."
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
Hi, I know it does not have much to do with your post maybe, but if with biology and chemistry, what do you think of the 5 meO-DMT? I think it is still very little known and it is fascinating, I invite you to take a look at my last publication where I have a video with the information on that topic, as a scientist you are I would very much like any opinion of you on the subject.
It is great to have a scientist in steemit, although I like science I am passionate above all about hobbye electronics but science, technology, robotics, chemistry, physics and practically all the branches I love.
regards