Thermodynamic Methods for Biological Applications

Calorimetry is a primary technique for measuring the thermal properties of materials to establish a connection between temperature and specific physical properties of substances and is the only method for direct determination of the enthalpy associated with the process of interest. Calorimeters are used frequently in chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology, biotechnology, pharmacology and in nanoscience, to measure thermodynamic properties of the biomolecules and nano-sized materials.

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) - Thermal analysis technique for determining: the purity, the polymorphic forms and the melting point of a sample, amorphicity, detecting and quantifying crystallinity, measuring purity of low MW materials etc.

Nano-DSC - Application areas: partial heat capacity of solutes, protein stability – thermodynamic characterization, reversibility, influence of the chemical environment, intermolecular interactions – shifts in Tm for assessment of binding, oligonucleotides, DNA, RNA – “melting” of double strand structures, hair-pin structures, Lipids – gel-liquid phase transitions and reversed, general break-up or formation of non-covalent interactions in liquids.

Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) - Measuring weight changes in the sample while heating or keeping isothermal, Hi-Res TGA − Measuring the weight changes in the sample but allowing these weight changes to control the temperature profile (sample controlled thermal analysis). Modulated (Temperature) TGA − To study decomposition kinetics.

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) Provides an accurate way of determining binding affinities, thermodynamic signatures directly in a single experiment. ITC is a label -free technology, gain insight and further understanding of chemical or biological phenomena in general.