Thermal conductivity of bovine serum albumin: a tool to probe denaturation of protein

Byoung Kyoo Park, POSTECH, South Korea
Namwoo Yi, POSTECH, South Korea
Jaesung Park, POSTECH, South Korea
Tae Y. Choi, University of North Texas
Jin Young Lee, Northeastern University
Ahmed Busnaina, Northeastern University
Dongsik Kim, POSTECH, South Korea

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Originally published in Applied Physics Letters, v.99, 163702 (2011). doi:10.1063/1.3652704

Abstract

We demonstrate a strong correlation between denaturation of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and the thermal conductivity k of aqueous solutions of BSA. When denaturation of BSA began, k dropped significantly. These results suggest that k, i.e., the ability of a protein to transport passively applied thermal energy, can be exploited to probe the conformational dynamics of BSA and potentially of other proteins. The technique of protein analysis demonstrated in this work is expected to be useful in micro-total-analysis systems because it is easier to miniaturize and to integrate into a device than is conventional differential scanning calorimetry analysis.