Do, Thao
College of Science and Mathematics
Professor: Dr. Saul Trevino
ABSTRACT:
Poor protein solubility is a major problem in the development of protein pharmaceuticals. Solubility determines how concentrated drugs are in the system. When medication is injected into the system, higher concentrations are needed for effective results. In this study, we investigated the solubility of a protein called lysozyme. Using ammonium sulfate precipitation, we measured lysozyme solubility as a function of pH, and compared solubility and net charge as a function of pH. This has been an ongoing project, and this year, we focused on improving data that appeared to be outliers. For example, the slopes of salting out curves should stay the same at different pH values, but previous data for certain pH values did not agree well with data for other pH values. Fortunately, upon re-measuring solubility values for certain pH’s, the data did improve. Hopefully, with this work and future work, the relationship between protein solubility and pH can be fully understood.
