Malvern shows Zetasizer Nano new chromatography applications at Protein Society Meeting

The new ‘chromatography flow-mode’ option for Malvern’s market-leading Zetasizer Nano particle and molecular characterization system will be on display at the 21st Symposium of the Protein Society being held July 21-25, 2007 in Boston, MA. This new option allows the system’s use as an in-line chromatography detector for protein applications, conferring the ability to perform Absolute Size Exclusion Chromatography (ASEC).

The Zetasizer Nano ‘chromatography flow-mode’ permits the coupling of dynamic light scattering with size exclusion chromatography. This allows protein size to be measured directly rather than relying on column calibration or additional data from a second detector, and means that molecular weight standards are no longer required to identify oligomeric species or determine protein purity.

To coincide with the meeting Malvern has added a new downloadable presentation on ‘Protein chromatography’ to its website. This presentation can be accessed via the article webpage. It describes how the Zetasizer Nano can determine absolute molecular size and how the protein’s molecular weight can be determined from dynamic light scattering size data.

To use the Zetasizer Nano as an absolute light scattering detector it simply needs to be connected after the last detector in a size exclusion chromatography (SEC) system. The instrument can be added to any SEC set-up; no column calibration is required and the Zetasizer Nano’s software makes the entire measurement process simple and straightforward. For the majority of protein separations in aqueous media, no extra parameters are required. Size is plotted in real time as material is eluted from the column, and the molecular weight of each peak is calculated automatically at the end of the measurement.