Amino Acid Analysis

The PCL currently offers two levels of analysis for Amino Acid composition. For qualitative analyses (compositional) each sample will be hydrolysed once and separated once by reverse phase HPLC. Each sample will be accompanied by internal standards, a control protein and a matrix blank (supplied by the client). For quantitative analysis, each sample will be hydrolyzed at least twice (duplicates) and injected into the HPLC at least twice (replicates). Each series of samples also includes standard calibration amino acids, a blank (matrix provided by the client) control and a standard protein (generally, human serum albumin). The amount of sample analyzed will be adjusted as necessary to fall onto the standard curve as described by the calibration amino acids to insure accurate estimations. The internal standards added to each sample (see Experimental Procedure) are used to control errors due to sample loss, injection variations and variability in preparing dilutions. The internal standards are also used to calculate the amount of each amino acid in the sample. The control protein is used as an internal validation to the method and helps us measure acceptable %RSDs for most of the amino acids. These values are constantly updated and archived and available at the Protein Chemistry Laboratory for the client to survey.

You will receive a spreadsheet of your analysis that contains the amount of each amino acid found in the sample, the total amount of all the amino acids found and the mole% of each amino acid. We can also perform database searches to identify unknown proteins based on amino acid composition upon request. Please see us for details.