Development of a high-throughput crystal structure-determination platform for JAK1 using a novel metal-chelator soaking system

Crystals of phosphorylated JAK1 kinase domain were initially generated in complex with nucleotide (ADP) and magnesium. The tightly bound Mg²⁺-ADP at the ATP-binding site proved recalcitrant to ligand displacement. Addition of a molar excess of EDTA helped to dislodge the divalent metal ion, promoting the release of ADP and allowing facile exchange with ATP-competitive small-molecule ligands. Many kinases require the presence of a stabilizing ligand in the ATP site for crystallization. This procedure could be useful for developing co-crystallization systems with an exchangeable ligand to enable structure-based drug design of other protein kinases.