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Updated: May 29, 2026

Characterization of Proteins by Size-Exclusion Chromatography Coupled to Multi-Angle Light Scattering (SEC-MALS)
Published on: June 20, 2019
Chemical modification of proteins to improve the accuracy of their relative molecular mass determination by
Vladislav Dolnik1, William A Gurske
1Alcor BioSeparations LLC, Palo Alto, CA, USA. ladia@dolnik.net
Abstract:
We studied the electrophoretic behavior of basic proteins (cytochrome c and histone III) and developed a carbamylation method that normalizes their electrophoretic size separation and improves the accuracy of their relative molecular mass determined electrophoretically. In capillary zone electrophoresis with cationic hitchhiking, native cytochrome c does not sufficiently bind cationic surfactants due to electrostatic repulsion between the basic protein and cationic surfactant. Carbamylation suppresses the strong positive charge of the basic proteins and results in more accurate relative molecular masses.
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