Mapping The Cold Denaturation Landscape of Proteins

We are exploring the fundamental basis of an importnat but little understood key component of globular protein stability and function: protein cold denaturation. Cold denaturation is not a commonly known phenomena, yet probably all globular proteins have a free energy minimum in the vicinity of 20-40 C and have increasing free energies at both higher and lower temperatures, for different physical chemistry reasons that are equally important. We belive understanding this fundamental puzzle of globular protein metastability will get at the heart of understanding globular protein stability in the cell. We are using low-temperature microfluidics and single molecule spectroscopy to monitor protein stability at both low and high temperatures.