Despite the wide use of conventional detergents, removal of a membrane protein from the native lipid bilayer and into a detergent micelle can possibly interfere with the structure, function, and stability of the protein. To avoid some of these issues with detergents, many systems have been developed which attempt to mimic the native lipid membrane. These include bicelles (1), MSP-nanodiscs (2), styrene-maleic acid copolymers (SMAs) (3) and diisobutylene-maleic acid (DIBMA).
In 2017, the use of a new copolymer was characterized, diisobutylene/maleic acid (DIBMA) for the direct solubilization and purification of membrane proteins from a native lipid bilayer (4, 5). DIBMA circumvents both precipitation in the presence of low concentrations of divalent cations and high absorbance issues at 280nm.
DIBMA from Anatrace is a highly purified version of diisobutylene and maleic acid co-polymer in a 1:1 ratio, which is ready to be used directly and requires no additional hydrolysis, dialysis, or purification steps.

Solubility: ≥ 10 % (in water at 20 °C)
Absorbance of a 0.1% solution in water at 280 nm: <0.3
Mg²⁺ tolerance: 25 mM
Ca²⁺ tolerance: 20 mM

1. Sanders, C. R. et al. (1994) Progress in NMR Spectroscopy 26(5), 421-444
2. Bayburt, T. H. & Sligar, S. G. (2003) Protein Sci. 12(11), 2476-2481
3. Knowles, T. J. et al. (2009) J. Am Chem Soc. 131(22), 7484-7485
4. Oluwole, A. O. et al. (2017) Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 56(7), 1919-1924
5. Oluwole, A. O. et al. (2017) Langmuir 33(50), 14378-14388