On-chip Acousto Thermal Shift Assay for Rapid and Sensitive Assessment of Protein Thermodynamic Stability

Yonghui Ding; Kerri A. Ball; Kristofor J. Webb; Yu Gao; Angelo D'Alessandro; William M. Old; Michael H. B. Stowell; Xiaoyun Ding

doi:10.1002/smll.202003506

arXiv · 2108.04935

On-chip Acousto Thermal Shift Assay for Rapid and Sensitive Assessment of Protein Thermodynamic Stability

Yonghui Ding·Kerri A. Ball·Kristofor J. Webb·Yu Gao·Angelo D'Alessandro·William M. Old·Michael H. B. Stowell·Xiaoyun Ding

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Abstract

Thermal shift assays (TSAs) have been extensively used to study thermodynamics of proteins and provide an efficient means to assess protein-ligand binding or protein-protein interaction. However, existing TSAs have limitations such as time consuming, labor intensive, or low sensitivity. Here we introduce a novel acousto thermal shift assay (ATSA), the first ultrasound enabled TSA, for real-time analysis of protein thermodynamic stability. It capitalizes the novel coupling of unique acoustic mechanisms to achieve protein unfolding, concentration, and measurement on a single microfluidic chip within minutes. Compared to conventional TSA methods, our ATSA technique enabled ultra-fast (at least 30 times faster), highly sensitive (7-34 folds higher), and label-free monitoring of protein-ligand interactions and protein stability. ATSA paves new avenues for protein analysis in biology, medicine and fast diagnosis.

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Yonghui Ding, Kerri A. Ball, Kristofor J. Webb, Yu Gao, Angelo D'Alessandro, William M. Old, Michael H. B. Stowell, Xiaoyun Ding. 2021-08-10. On-chip Acousto Thermal Shift Assay for Rapid and Sensitive Assessment of Protein Thermodynamic Stability. https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202003506

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