(58b) A Systematic Study on the Influence of Oriented Nanoparticles in Polymer Nanocomposite

Native gel electrophoresis is a powerful technique for the separation of proteins based on their size and shape that also enables subsequent assessments of protein function (such as through Western blotting). Such assessments are important in many areas including in bio-health applications such as medical diagnostics. In this study, we examined the impact of bisacrylamide concentration and bentonite nanoparticles on the native gel electrophoresis of two model proteins, ovalbumin and carbonic anhydrase. The experiments involve varying the concentration of bisacrylamide in the presence and absence of bentonite nanoparticles (a mineral ubiquitous in clay) in the gel matrix. The research is relevant to fostering understanding of the role of the hydrogel structure on the separation performance of proteins. For example, we hypothesize that the results would reveal that increasing the concentration of bisacrylamide leads to a decrease in the mobility of both proteins. Furthermore, the addition of bentonite should result in a more pronounced retardation effect on ovalbumin when compared to the relatively smaller carbonic anhydrase. These findings would be a first step in understanding the impact of crosslinker and the presence of additives in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and can significantly impact the separation efficacy and characterization of proteins by native gel electrophoresis. Further investigations would attempt to understand the underlying mechanisms of these effects and their potential applications in drug delivery and related developments. Preliminary results and trends will be reported in this contribution.