Monday, October 14, 2024

Monday's Molecule #243

Today's molecule is quite complicated. It's the extracellular domain of a membrane protein.2 You can use whatever tricks you want to identify it. Regular readers will know that it's related to at least one Nobel Prize Laureate who will be revealed on Wednesday. I don't think that's going to help you very much.

Email your answer to me at: Monday's Molecule #242. The first one with the correct answer wins. I will only post the names of winners to avoid embarrassment. The winner will be treated to a free coffee and donut at Tim Hortons if you are ever in Toronto or Mississauga (Ontario, Canada).1

There could be two winners. If the first correct answer isn't from an undergraduate student then I'll select a second winner from those undergraduates who post the correct answer. You will need to identify yourself as an undergraduate in order to win. (Put "undergraduate" at the bottom of your email message.)

In order to win you must post your correct name. Anonymous and pseudoanonymous commenters can't win.

Comments are closed for at least 24 hours.

UPDATE: The winner is Mikkel Rasmussen who correctly guessed that the protein is the extracellular domain of the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor. Sadly, Mikkel lives in a faraway country that doesn't have a Tim Hortons so he won't get to enjoy a honey cruller or chocolate dip donut.

Winners

#145, Oct. 17, 2011: Bill Chaney, Roger Fan
#146, Oct. 24, 2011: DK
#147, Oct. 31, 2011: Joseph C. Somody
#148, Nov. 7, 2011: Jason Oakley
#149, Nov. 15, 2011: Thomas Ferraro, Vipulan Vigneswaran
#150, Nov. 21, 2011: Vipulan Vigneswaran (honorary mention to Raul A. Félix de Sousa)
#151, Nov. 28, 2011: Philip Rodger
#152, Dec. 5, 2011: 凌嘉誠 (Alex Ling)
#153, Dec. 12, 2011: Bill Chaney
#154, Dec. 19, 2011: Joseph C. Somody
#155, Jan. 9, 2012: Dima Klenchin
#156, Jan. 23, 2012: David Schuller
#157, Jan. 30, 2012: Peter Monaghan
#158, Feb. 7, 2012: Thomas Ferraro, Charles Motraghi
#159, Feb. 13, 2012: Joseph C. Somody
#160, March 5, 2012: Albi Celaj
#161, March 12, 2012: Bill Chaney, Raul A. Félix de Sousa
#162, March 19, 2012: no winner
#163, March 26, 2012: John Runnels, Raul A. Félix de Sousa
#164, April 2, 2012: Sean Ridout
#165, April 9, 2012: no winner
#166, April 16, 2012: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
#167, April 23, 2012: Dima Klenchin, Deena Allan
#168, April 30, 2012: Sean Ridout
#169, May 7, 2012: Matt McFarlane
#170, May 14, 2012: no winner
#171, May 21, 2012: no winner
#172, May 29, 2012: Mike Hamilton, Dmitri Tchigvintsev
#173, June 4, 2012: Bill Chaney, Matt McFarlane
#174, June 18, 2012: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
#175, June 25, 2012: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
#176, July 2, 2012: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
#177, July 16, 2012: Sean Ridout, William Grecia
#178, July 23, 2012: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
#179, July 30, 2012: Bill Chaney and Raul A. Félix de Sousa
#180, Aug. 7, 2012: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
#181, Aug. 13, 2012: Matt McFarlane
#182, Aug. 20, 2012: Stephen Spiro
#183, Aug. 27, 2012: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
#184, Sept. 3, 2012: Matt McFarlane
#185, Sept. 10, 2012: Matt Talarico
#186, Sept. 17, 2012: no winner
#187, Sept. 24, 2012: Mikkel Rasmussen
#188, Oct. 1, 2012: John Runnels
#189, Oct. 8, 2012: Raúl Mancera
#190, Oct. 15, 2012: Raul A. Félix de Sousa
#191, Oct. 22, 2012: Mikkel Rasmussen
#192, Nov. 12, 2012: Seth Kasowitz, Bill Gunn
#193, Nov. 19, 2012: Michael Rasmussen
#194, Dec. 4, 2012: Paul Clapham, Jacob Toth
#195, Dec. 10, 2012: Jacob Toth
#196, Dec. 17, 2012: Bill Chaney, Dima Klenchin, Bill Gunn
#197, Jan. 14, 2013: Evey Salara
#198, Jan. 21, 2013: Piotr Gasiorowski
#199, March 11, 2013: Bill Gunn, River Jiang
#200, March 18, 2013: Bill Gunn
#201, April 8, 2013: Michael Florea
#202, April 15, 2013: no winner
#203, April 29, 2013: Anders Ernberg
#204, May 6, 2013: Alex Ling, Michael Florea
#205, May 13, 2013: Bill Chaney
#206, June 24, 2013: Michael Florea
#207, July 2, 2013: Matt McFarlane
#208, July 8, 2013: no winner
#209, July 15, 2013: Rosie Redfield, Thuc Quyen Huynh
#210, July 22, 2013: Jacob Toth
#211, July 29, 2013: Alex Ling, Matt McFarlane
#212, August 5, 2013: Brian Shewchuk
#213, Sept. 2, 2013: no winner
#214, Sept. 9, 2013: Bill Chaney
#215, Sept. 16, 2013: Zhimeng Yu
#216, Sept. 23, 2013: Mark Sturtevant, Jacob Toth
#217, Sept. 30, 2013: Susan Heaphy
#218, Oct. 7, 2013: Piotr Gasiorowski, Jacob Troth
#219, Oct. 14, 2013: Jean-Marc Neuhaus
#220, Oct. 21, 2013: Jean-Marc Neuhaus
#221, Oct. 28, 2013: Zhimeng Yu
#222, Nov. 10, 2013: Caroline Josefsson, Andrew Wallace
#223, Nov. 18, 2013: Dean Bruce, Ariel Gershon
#224, Nov. 25, 2013: Jon Nuelle, Ariel Gershon
#225, Dec. 2, 2013: Jean-Marc Neuhaus
#226, Dec. 9, 2013: Bill Gunn
#227, Dec. 16, 2013: Piotr Gasiorowski
#228, Jan. 13, 2014: Tom Mueller
#229, Jan. 20, 2014: Tommy Stuleanu
#230, Jan. 27, 2014: Bill Gunn, Ariel Gershon
#231; March 3, 2014: Keith Conover, Nevraj Kejiou
#232, March 10, 2014: Philip Johnson
#233, March 17, 2014: Jean-Marc Neuhaus
#234, March 24, 2014: Frank Schmidt, Raul Félix de Sousa
#235, March 31, 2014: Jon Binkley
#236, April 7, 2014: no winner
#237, April 21, 2014: Dean Bruce
#238, April 28, 2014: Dean Bruce
#239, May 5, 2014: Piotr Gąsiorowski
#240, May 12, 2014: James Wagstaff
#241, May 19, 2014: no winner
#242, Oct. 7, 2024: Elie Huvier
#243, Oct. 14, 2024: Mikkel Rasmussen

1. I still owe some previous winners. If you are one of them, then you should email me to set up a time and place.

2. The figure is from Rudenko, G., Henry, L., Henderson, K., Ichtchenko, K., Brown, M. S., Goldstein, J. L., and Deisenhofer, J. (2002) Structure of the LDL receptor extracellular domain at endosomal pH. Science, 298(5602), 2353-2358. [doi: 10.1126/science.1078124


1 comment:

  1. Sadly can't claim much credit here, I don't know that many membrane proteins by name, much less recognize their structures by sight. However the challenge did say one could use whatever trick to identify it, so I just asked chatGPT for an example of a membrane protein with an extracellular domain containing a beta-propeller, and it suggested LDLR. Looking at wikipedia showed the same structure on a picture.

    ReplyDelete