Patent ID: 7491523

Claim:
A crystallized voltage-dependent calcium channel (VDCC) β2a subunit functional core, wherein the crystal effectively diffracts X-rays for the determination of the atomic coordinates of the VDCC β2a subunit functional core to a resolution of better than 5.0 Angstroms, wherein said crystal is made by vapor diffusion from a VDCC β2a subunit functional core protein concentrated to 12 mg/ml with: a) a reservoir solution of 1.6 M ammonium sulfate, 0.1 M Hepes pH 7.0, 5 mM β-mercaptoethanol and grown at 4° C., or b) a reservoir solution of 3% PEG 20,000, 0.1 M Bicine pH 9, 0.1 M NaCl, 5 mM β-mercaptoethanol and grown at 19° C. and wherein the amino acid sequence of said VDCC β2a subunit functional core has at least 95% identity to SEQ ID NO: 20 or SEQ ID NO: 21, or at least 95% identity to either of said sequences without the four amino acid linker located at residues 114-117 of SEQ ID NO: 20 or 21.