McEwan et al used an innovative chimeric protein approach to obtain structural information on the GPIbβ-GPIX association in the GPIb-IX-V complex.¹  The top panel shows a schematic diagram of the sequence of GPIbβ, with the portion of GPIbβ used for structural analysis shown in blue. The GPIX sequences grafted into the GPIbβ scaffold in the GPIbβ/IX chimera are shown in magenta. Disulfide bridges are indicted by yellow arcs, and elements of secondary structure in the solenoid repeat region are indicated above the diagram (arrows for β-strands, boxes for 3₁₀ helices). The bottom panel shows 4 protein chains from the crystal of the GPIbβ (blue)/IX (magenta) chimera in cartoon representation, highlighting the side chains of interface residues and disulfide bridges (yellow) in stick representation.