Molecular analysis, problem solving examples

As discussed in its Introduction (Section 1), this chapter has been kept deliberately short, and just a few additional/novel examples were used to amplify the range of problem-solving capabilities some of the more common molecular characterization and analysis tools may be put to use for. 

Characterization of noncovalent bonding of the proteins can also be done using MS. For example MALDI MS has been used in measurement of the molecular mass of the noncovalendy linked tetramer of glucose isomerase, a complex consisting of identical monomers of 43.1 kDa each. MALDI-TOFF peptide mass fingerprinting combined with electrospray tandem mass spectrometry can efficiently solve many complicated peptide protein analysis problems. 

One way of determining the importance of a technique is to examine the economic statistics related to the sale of corresponding instruments. The diffusion of a technique increases the probability that an analyst will encounter it during his professional career. For example, the statistics above show that chromatographic techniques alone represent more than half of the sales of instruments for molecular analysis (as opposed to elemental analysis, which is half of this). However, economic indicators are not the only factor taken into account when assigning the importance of a method. For certain analyses, even a rarely used method can be the most important if it represents the only available means of solving a problem. 

The examples shown above clearly demonstrate the potential of molecular modeling for structure analysis. Modeling helps to solve difficult structural problems and adds new information concerning long range intermolecular interactions. 

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