Patent ID: 8211714

Claim:
A method for determining the level of biological activity of a biomolecule that is bound to a binding partner, comprising: a) obtaining a reference signature of a biomolecule bound to a reference binding partner for which a reference level of biological activity is known by exposing the biomolecule and the reference binding partner to a plurality of interaction systems to determine a plurality of apparent partition coefficients, each interaction system comprising a plurality of components able to interact with the biomolecule, and constructing the reference signature by assembling the plurality of apparent partition coefficients into a numerical construct; b) determining a relationship between the reference signature of the biomolecule and the reference level of biological activity; c) obtaining an experimental signature of the biomolecule bound to an experimental binding partner by exposing the biomolecule and the experimental binding partner to a plurality of interaction systems to determine a plurality of apparent partition coefficients, each interaction system comprising a plurality of components able to interact with the biomolecule, and constructing the experimental signature by assembling the plurality of apparent partition coefficients into a numerical construct; d) comparing the experimental signature of c) and the relationship derived in b); and e) determining the level of biological activity of the experimental binding partner based on the comparison of d).