Spectroscopy

The spectroscopy laboratory is dedicated to the biophysical characterization of macromolecules of biological interest. The instrumentation in use, associated with that of the thermodynamic laboratory, allows us to provide structural information on the macromolecules in solution and to investigate structure / activity correlations. The techniques used provide information on the secondary structure (CD) and tertiary (fluorescence) of proteins, the characterization of copper-ion complexes with peptides (CD and UV-Vis spectroscopy), enzymatic kinetics and the reaction mechanisms related to them , the interactions between macromolecules and macromolecules with ligands (UV-Vis spectroscopy, fluorescence), Western Blot, in-cell Western and SDS-PAGE detection (Odissay)

Spectropolarimeter Jasco J-810

Circular dichroism (CD) is a type of absorption spectroscopy that can provide information on the structure of many biological molecules: the difference between the absorption of circularly polarized radiation in the left and right direction of the solution is measured. CD is used for: determination of the structure of proteins; induced structural changes, ie pH, heat and solvent; folding / unfolding of proteins; binding of ligands; structural aspects of nucleic acids, polysaccharides, peptides and small molecules; coordination of metal ions (eg copper) with donor atoms. The Jasco -810 spectropolarimater is equipped with a Peltier system for temperature regulation and allows the use of cells of different volume depending on the quantity of sample

Spectrofluorometer FluoroMax-4 Horiba Scientific equipped with DH-HT TCSPC controller and NL-C2 Pulsed diode controller for fluorescence life-time detection

The FluoroMax® fluorometer is an easy-to-use Steady State (SS) and Life Time (LT) benchtop fluorescence instrument. It consists of the FluoroMax Plus, a high-performance tabletop fluorometer and a (TCSPC) Time Correlated Single Photon Counting lifetime measurements as short as 25ps. The instrument allows to carry out induced steady state, lifetime and fluorescence anisotropy (temperature, pH, solvents, interaction between molecules, enzymatic kinetics) with high level of accuracy and sensitivity. For LT measurements, the wide range of LED and laser sources supplied allows to cover most of the electromagnetic spectrum from 260nm to about 600nm

Microplate Reader Varioscan Flash (Thermo Fisher)

The Varioskan Flash multimodal microplate reading system is a flexible system to be used for a variety of techniques ranging from photometry, to fluorescence, to luminescence. The multi-plate system (up to 192 wells) allows to carry out a large number of measurements with low product consumption (from 200 to a few tens of microliters)

Western Blot Detection System Odissay Li-Cor

Detection System Odissay Li-Cor it is possible to analyze Western blots, cell-based assays, protein arrays, gel shift assays, tissue section imaging, with near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence. It is possible to scan up to 9 mini-blots, 6 microplates, or 30 slides at the same time. The large scanning bed provides high throughput for many assays.

Specification:

Image Field Size : 25 cm W × 25 cm D (9.8” W × 9.8” D)

Resolution: 21-337 µm

Light Sources: Solid-state diode laser at 685 nm; Solid-state diode laser at 785 nm