The Stargazer system is being used by scientists in pharmaceutical companies and academic laboratories to

• screen for ligands for some of these proteins,
• find optimization buffer conditions for protein stabilization, including for membrane proteins
• and for lead optimization in drug discovery projects.

The following publications describe in some detail how Harbinger systems are used:

1. Vedadi M et al. Chemical screening methods to identify ligands that promote protein stability, protein crystallization, and structure determination. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Oct 24;103(43):15835-40.
2. Senisterra GA et al. Screening for ligands using a generic and high-throughput light-scattering-based assay. J Biomol Screen. 2006 Dec;11(8):940-8.
3. Vedadi M et al. Genome-scale protein expression and structural biology of Plasmodium falciparum and related Apicomplexan organisms. Mol Biochem Parasitol. 2007 Jan;151(1):100-10.
4. Hong BS et al. Crystal structures of human pantothenate kinases. Insights into allosteric regulation and mutations linked to a neurodegeneration disorder. J Biol Chem. 2007 Sep 21;282(38):27984-93.
5. Dufe et al. Crystal structure of Plasmodium falciparum spermidine synthase in complex with the substrate decarboxylated S-adenosylmethionine and the potent inhibitors 4MCHA and AdoDATO. J Mol Biol. 2007 Oct 12;373(1):167-77.
6. Graslund et al. The use of systematic N- and C-terminal deletions to promote production and structural studies of recombinant proteins. Protein Expr Purif. 2007 Nov 22.
7. Schutz et al. Crystal Structure of Human RNA Helicase A (DHX9): Structural Basis for Unselective Nucleotide Base Binding in a DEAD-Box Variant Protein. J Mol Biol. 2010 Jul 23;400(4):768-82.
8. Adams M et al. Crystal structure of PhnH: an essential component of carbon-phosphorus lyase in Escherichia coli. J Bacteriol. 2008 Feb;190(3):1072-83.
9. Senisterra et al. Assessing the stability of membrane proteins to detect ligand binding using differential static light scattering. J Biomol Screen. 2010 Mar;15(3):314-20.