Ficoll and polyethyl glycol (PEG) are two different types of sugars that we used to detect the effect of macromolecular crowding on two different types of proteins. The proteins used were Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) and B-phyceorythrin. Macromolecular crowding can affect the protein structure, shape, conformational stability, binding of small molecules, enzymatic activity, protein-protein interactions, and aggregation. The purpose of this research is to acknowledge which sugar would cause the protein to aggregate. This study is important because it will help to know the behavior of that particular protein and the environment in which it is more custom. This will lead us to finding cure and treatment for different diseases, such as Alzheimer. In order to conduct this experiment, we applied the Fluorescence correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) method. Using the FCS method, the results showed Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) aggregates in Ficoll and Polyethyl glycol (PEG), except in the 10Mg/mL and the 50 Mg/mL and the protein, B-phyceorythrin did not aggregate until it reached 1000 Mg/mL and 1200 Mg/mL. The Macromolecular crowding affected both the BSA and B-phyceorythrin because high concentration of macromolecules reduces the volume of solvents available for other molecules in the solution, causing the protein to aggregate.<br/>This project was funded by the OSCAR program at Delaware State University, and the Delaware INBRE IDeA program, with a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences – NIGMS (8 P20 GM103446-16) from the National Institute of Health. Further scholarship support from the National Science Foundation S-STEM DUE grant 135554 (Cannon Scholar program), and the State of Delaware DEDO program is also acknowledged.

Ficoll induced aggregation in bovine serum albumin and not B-phyceorythrin

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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