Dynamic Light Scattering Proves Useful for Protein Aggregation Research

New research using protein aggregation technology is ongoing to gain a better understanding of the protein aggregation phenomena, including protein crystallization and amyloid fibril growth.

Dr. Martin Muschol, assistant professor at the University of South Florida's (USF; Tampa, USA) department of physics and his team are carrying out the study. Using the Zetasizer Nano ZS, from Malvern Instruments (Malvern, UK), the USF researchers have been able to perform temperature controlled static and dynamic light-scattering (DLS) measurements of protein hydration, protein interactions, and aggregation kinetics in vitro.

"By enabling temperature-controlled measurements, the Zetasizer Nano ZS is particularly suited to our work here at USF,” said Dr. Muschol. "With it we have been able to monitor the effect on the hydration of proteins by salt ions in solution, measuring the hydrodynamic radius of proteins down to plus/minus one-tenth the diameter of a water molecule. Interestingly, we found that neither chaotropic or cosmotropic salt ions affected overall protein hydration up to salt concentrations of 1M.”

Having published several articles in 2009 alone, data collected by Dr. Muschol and his team will be used to develop models for protein fibril formation, a behavior believed to trigger degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. "Despite intensive research efforts, we still don't understand how proteins can stay in solution in a crowded cellular environment and what triggers their aggregation and subsequent pathological changes. We hope our research will contribute to resolving these basic puzzles.”

Dr. Muschol's team has also had significant success in using the Zetasizer Nano ZS to study the nucleation of gold nanoparticles. Unlike static light measurements typically used to detect nucleation events, DLS separates out the background scattering from small molecular species in gold sols. Therefore, DLS was able to detect nucleation at a significantly earlier stage than has been possible with other approaches.

The Zetasizer Nano ZS is a suitable sizing solution for biotechnology and materials scientists, offering excellent sensitivity down to submicron and nanometer scales. The system's ability to control temperature is important when following the behavior of polymers and protein samples.

Malvern Instruments provides a range of complementary materials characterization tools that deliver inter-related measurements reflecting the complexities of particulates and disperse systems, nanomaterials and macromolecules. Analytic instruments from Malvern are used in the characterization of a wide variety of materials, from industrial bulk powders to nanomaterials and delicate macromolecules. A wide range of technologies is combined with intelligent, user-friendly software. These systems deliver industrially relevant data enabling users to make the connection between micro (such as particle size) and macro (bulk) material properties (rheology) and chemical composition (chemical imaging).

Particle size, particle shape, zeta potential, molecular weight, chemical composition, and rheologic properties measurements are now joined by advanced chromatography solutions (GPC/SEC), extending Malvern's technologies for protein molecular weight, size, and aggregation measurements, and synthetic polymer molecular weight and distribution.

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University of South Florida
Malvern Instruments