Circular Dichroism (CD) spectrometer

Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy is an optical tool, which allows the detection and quantification of chirality of molecular structure. The CD spectrometer allows recording circular dichroism spectra of peptides, proteins and other chromophoric chiral molecules and provides valuable information of their structural conformation. Protein-ligand interaction, Drug-DNA interaction and their subsequent change in the conformation, protein folding and aggregation studies can be studied in CD spectroscopy. We have JASCO 815 CD spectrometer with peltier control temperature controller.

UV-Visible spectrophotometer

UV-Visible spectrophotometer is essential instrument for Chemistry and Biology laboratory for the estimation proteins and DNA concentration, enzyme kinetics and elucidates photochemical property of molecules. Our central facility is equipped with one Perkin Elmer Lambda 35 double beam spectrophotometer and a Nano drop spectrophotometer (GE Healthcare).

FTIR spectrophotometer

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is a technique, which is used to obtain an infrared spectrum in absorption or emission mode of a solid or liquid sample. FTIR instrument is widely used in the identification of organic compounds. It is also used in the protein secondary structure estimation and biomolecular interaction studies. Our central facility is equipped with Bruker Tensor 27 FTIR with Diamond ATR cell. It has DTGS as well as liquid nitrogen cooled MCT detector for various sample application.

Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)

Differential Scanning Calorimeter is instrument, which measures the difference in heat flow between sample and reference as a function of time and temperature. The DSC measurement provides quantitative and qualitative information about the physic chemical change associated in the sample. We have NANO DSC system from TA instruments (Waters).

Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC)

Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC) is one of most widely used label free techniques to understand the biomolecular interaction. ITC simultaneously determines all binding parameters like binding constant (kd), stoichiometry (n) enthalpy (delta H) entropy (delta S) and free energy (delta G) change due to interaction in a single experiment. We have NanoITC from TA instruments (Waters), which allows very low sample volume (minimum 190 micro liter in cell) operation with highest sensitivity

Surface Plasmon Resonance (Biacore T200)

Central instrumentation facility (CIF) of RCB is equipped with latest surface plasmon resonance (SPR) device, Biacore T200 from GE Healthcare for comprehensive characterization of molecular interactions including thermodynamics, affinity, specificity, concentration and kinetics measurements. One of two interested molecules is immobilized on a chip while other (partner) molecule is flowed over the immobilized surface, and interactions are monitored in real time using SPR technology at high sensitivity, without the use of radioactivity. Characterization of protein-protein, protein-nucleic acid, protein-small molecule interactions are possible using purified samples. The instrument has multi-channel capabilities affording simultaneous experiments. Its major applications include understanding molecular mechanism and structure-function relationships, identification of potential drug targets and diagnostic markers, selection of bio therapeutic candidates according to their on/off rates and optimization of lead compounds in drug discovery.

Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS)

Dynamic Light Scattering is used to determine the size distribution of small particles present in colloidal dispersion systems, with applications in characterizing size distribution of various particles including proteins, polymers, micelles, carbohydrates, and nanoparticles. Our instrument, Zetasizer Nano ZS90 is an entry-level system for the measurement of particle size (0.3 nm - 5.0 microns diameter) and molecular size at a 90 degree scattering angle using dynamic light scattering. It also has the ability to measure zeta potential and electrophoretic mobility using laser Doppler microelectrophoresis, and to estimate molecular weight (9,800 Da - 20M Da) using Static Light Scattering.