Chemistry 1027A/B Lecture Notes - Protein Purification, Buffer Solution, Chemotherapy

• School: Western University
• Department: Chemistry
• Course: Chemistry 1027A/B
• Professor: Terry Biggs

Document Summary

Why purify: for medical use, to study structure and function. Must be pure to determine structure: for use as a reagent in the laboratory. Pure antibodies are required for chemotherapy, and auto-immune disorders. Proteins are present in cells or secretions, and are thus complex mixtures usually many different proteins. Plus other dna, lipid, small molecules, etc (contaminants which must be removed) Must be able to easily detect the protein of interest in a mixture. Must be able to measure some property of the protein of interest. Following are techniques to break open tissue or cells to release proteins. A way to break open yeast cells is to put them under extreme amt of pressure. Buffer prevents huge fluctuations of ph, which keeps the protein in its native state. Contains large & small molecules from the cytosol and all of the membrane-enclosed organelles. Spin homogenate to separate by size/density into fractions.