Protein Fibrillation Studied with QCM-D using Q-Sense Instruments

This application note describes the use of Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation (QCM-D) to monitor the changes in thickness and viscoelastic properties of multilayer amyloid deposition in situ for the first time. The ability of certain polypeptides to aggregate into long, thin fibrils called amyloid structures is associated with multiple protein folding disorders and is also a major problem in biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications. This work demonstrates for the first time the ability to monitor the temporal development and viscoelastic changes of multilayer amyloid deposition in situ.