Improvements in the Physical-Analytical Sequence. Thermodynamic and Chromatographic Studies on Biological Systems

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In the physical-analytical sequence at Georgia State University, improvements are being made in studies on solution phenomena and thermodynamic analyses, and high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) is now the primary technique in the chromatography area. Automated thermal and pH titration systems connected to personal computers are being used by students to explore, in a biological context, the thermodynamic and analytical aspects of proton transfer and metal ion binding. Titrations with hundreds or even thousands of data points can be performed on small volumes, thus allowing use of costly biological samples and performance of up to ten times more experiments than at present. Students are using HPLC to perform separations of optically active components, establish the molecular weight distribution for sonicated DNA samples and amylose mixtures, explore the analytical capabilities of chromatography and determine the detection limits for a particular component in an analgesic. Extensive data for several biological systems will be combined with the latest mathematical treatments to provide physical parameters and their associated errors for each system studied, and in some cases test the validity of chemical models. The institution is contributing to this project and amount equal to the NSF funds.