Patent ID: 6085153
Filing Date: 2000-07-04
Classification: G01J,G01N

Abstract:
A method of determining the respective fractions of a folded form and an unfolded form of a molecule in solution, comprising:recording two reference spectra for each of a folded form and unfolded form of the molecule;normalizing the reference spectra to a fixed topographic space;summing absolute differences in topographic values between each of two reference spectra representing a folded form and an unfolded form of the molecule and a sample spectrum taken at different magnitudes of at least one perturbation parameter, wherein said sample spectrum is normalized to said fixed topographic space;plotting each sum versus the at least one perturbation parameter to create a differential spectral topographic analysis curve; andquantitatively estimating the degree to which the molecule appears similar to a folded or unfolded form of the molecule by using data points chosen from the curve and scaling these points between known reference values for folded and unfolded forms of the molecule.