In bacteria, mechanosensitive ion channels such as MscL protect cells against osmotic shock. Although crucial for protecting cells, as with all ion channels, they have the potential to act as an Achilles heel, by providing a target for antimicrobial treatments. It is thought that these work as pressure release valves and respond to an increase in membrane tension by opening. Previous measurements suggested that these ion channels assemble into clusters of 100's of channels. Having a few channels in a cluster enables the sensitivity of the valve to be tuned having 100's of proteins in a cluster does not seem to make biological sense. Our SAXS measurements suggest that by expressing the protein direct into the proteoliposomes, we have created a system that is more representative of that found in bacterial membranes, so we should be able to get an accurate picture of the cluster size.