This filter manifold and this filtration paper were used by Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka in their studies of cell surface receptors. To study the receptors, they developed radioligand binding methods. After incubating membrane fractions from tissue with radioactively labelled ligands, they would pass them through small glass fibre filter discs which captured the membranes and let everything else pass through. In the filtration manifold could hold twelve filters. The filters were then washed, the radioactivity measured and the receptors found.
Robert Lefkowitz donated the filter manifold and the filtration paper to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2012.
This HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) apparatus was used by Robert Lefkowitz and colleagues in the early 1980s, as one of the steps to purify the beta adrenergic receptor, the first G protein coupled receptor to be purified. Drugs targeting G protein coupled receptors account for a substantial part of all drugs used in clinical medicine.
In chemistry, chromatography is an important method for separating substances. A mixture of substances dissolved in a liquid or gas is allowed to migrate through a stationary phase, for example a granular material consisting of solid particles. Because the components in the mixture interact with the grains in different ways, they will move at different speeds. In this way, the components are separated.
Robert Lefkowitz donated the HPLC apparatus to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2019.
