In the last two decades, while searching for interesting applications of ionic liquids as potent solvents, their solvation properties and their general impact on biomolecules, and in particular on proteins, gained interest. It turned out that ionic liquids are excellent solvents for protein refolding and crystallization. Biomolecules showed increased solubilities and stabilities, both operation...

Aqueous solutions of biomolecules such as proteins are very important model systems for understanding the functions of biomolecules in actual life processes because interactions between biomolecules and the surrounding water molecules are considered to be important determinants of biomolecules' functions. Globule proteins have been extensively studied via dielectric spectroscopy; the results in...

The low-frequency vibrational (LFV) modes of biomolecules reflect specific intramolecular and intermolecular thermally induced fluctuations that are driven by external perturbations, such as ligand binding, protein interaction, electron transfer, and enzymatic activity. Large efforts have been invested over the years to develop methods to access the LFV modes due to their importance in the stud...

In this study, based on ion-current rectification in the conically shaped nanochannel embedded in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membrane, we have selectively discriminated three small biomolecules. Because three positive biomolecules (Hoechst 33342, Propidium and Bupivacaine) have different hydrophobicities, their interactions with inside wall of the conical nanochannel are different and the...

We give a theoretical treatment of the interaction of electronic excitations (excitons) in biomolecules and quantum dots with the surrounding polar solvent. Significant quantum decoherence occurs due to the interaction of the electric dipole moment of the solute with the fluctuating electric dipole moments of the individual molecules in the solvent. We introduce spin boson models which could be...

We describe the construction of an apparatus for the production of a molecular jet of microhydrated biomolecules. Our design uses a water reservoir producing water vapour, which then passes through a separate reservoir containing a vapour of a sublimated biomolecule. The mixture coexpands into a molecular beam apparatus through a conical nozzle. Mass spectra showing water-adenin and water-uraci...

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2002 is being shared between scientists in two important fields: mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The Laureates, John B. Fenn and Koichi Tanaka (for MS) and Kurt Wüthrich (for NMR), have contributed in different ways to the further development of these methods to embrace biological macromolecules. This has meant a revolutionary breakt...

Pressure is a thermodynamic variable which is particularly suitable for exploration of the properties of biological macromolecules. For proteins, in particular, denaturation induced by pressure is different from that induced by temperature or denaturants. The response of proteins to pressure changes can provide information on properties of their native and non-native states. This review focuses...