title: Modern Analysis of Protein Folding by Differential Scanning Calorimetry.
abstract: Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is a very powerful tool for investigating protein folding and stability because its experimental output reflects the energetics of all conformations that become minimally populated during thermal unfolding. Accordingly, analysis of DSC experiments with simple thermodynamic models has been key for developing our understanding of protein stability during the past five decades. The discovery of ultrafast folding proteins, which have naturally broad conformational ensembles and minimally cooperative unfolding, opens the possibility of probing the complete folding free energy landscape, including those conformations at the top of the barrier to folding, via DSC. Exploiting this opportunity requires high-quality experiments and the implementation of novel analytical methods based on statistical mechanics. Here, we cover the recent exciting developments in this front, describing the new analytical procedures in detail as well as providing experimental guidelines for performing such analysis.
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Química-Física, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Beatriz
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ibarra-Molero
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, Bhupat & Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.
authors.forename: Athi N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Naganathan
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Química-Física, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain. Electronic address: sanchezr@ugr.es.
authors.forename: Jose M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Ruiz
authors.affiliation: Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain; School of Engineering, University of California, Merced, California, USA. Electronic address: vmunoz@cnb.csic.es.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Muñoz
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002152:Calorimetry, Differential Scanning / Q000379:methods*; D017510:Protein Folding
keywords: Bayesian analysis; Differential scanning calorimetry; Fast folding; Free energy surfaces; Protein unfolding; Statistical mechanics