Distance Learning: Techniques in Structural Molecular Biology (TSMB)

This section describes, in fairly basic terms, how proteins are characterised in terms of their size and shape, transport and optical properties.

• Physical Properties

Molecular Mass
Sedimentation
Electrophoresis
Viscometry and Osmometry
Mass Spectrometry

• Optical Properties

Spectroscopy (Absorption and emission)
FTIR (Protein Secondary Structure)
Electronic Absorption and linear dichroism
Molecular Chirality and Optical Rotation
Circular Dichroism (Protein Secondary Structure)
Fluorescence of Proteins
Light Scattering

Objectives

To teach the basic principles for the separation and characterisation of proteins.  The course provides information on the techniques employed to separate macromolecules on the basis of mass, size, shape or charge.  The second section concentrates on the consequences of the interaction of light with macromolecules and the techniques used to gain secondary structure information. At the end of this section, students should:

• Understand the techniques used for purification and characterisation of proteins, including their size and shape
• Understand how light interacts with proteins and how absorption and fluorescence techniques can be used to provide information on protein secondary structure
• Know a few examples of the use of optical techniques to solve real questions in protein chemistry