Automated PEAQ MicroCal ITC

在人体中，许多工作都是由蛋白质组成的团队来完成的，这些蛋白质为了特定的目的聚集在一起，比如修复DNA损伤或控制细胞分裂的方式。了解这些团队是如何在分子水平上聚集起来的，对于理解我们的细胞如何工作以及疾病中哪里出了问题是至关重要的。我们可以做到这一点的一种方法是探测蛋白质彼此之间或与其他生物分子（如DNA）结合的强度。我们可以问，当我们使用带有突变的蛋白质时，这些相互作用是否会改变。测量两种蛋白质之间相互作用程度的一个非常简单的方法是测量它们结合时释放或消耗的热量。这叫做量热法。由于热量的变化非常小，在千分之一卡路里的范围内，我们使用一种叫做微尺度量热计的专门仪器。它不仅能告诉我们蛋白质结合的强度，还能告诉我们它们是成对结合还是以其他方式结合。

In the body many jobs are carried out by proteins coming together in teams for specific purposes like repairing damage to DNA or controlling how cells divide. Understanding how these teams are assembled at the molecular level is fundamental to understanding how our cells work and what goes wrong in disease. One way we can do this is to probe how strongly proteins bind to each other or to other biomolecules such as DNA. We can ask if these interactions are changed when we use proteins with mutations. A very simple way of measuring the extent of interaction between two proteins is to measure the heat given off or consumed when they come together. This is called calorimetry. As the change in heat is very small, in range of thousandths of a calorie, we use a specialised instrument called a microscale-calorimeter. It can tell us not only how strongly the proteins bind but also whether they join together in pairs or other combinations.