Microscale Thermophoresis (MST)
Microscale Thermophoresis (MST) is a powerful Biophysical Technique that enables binding affinities to be assessed in solution, with no requirement for target immobilisation. Sygnature regularly employs this technique to profile client compounds as a complementary platform to its state of the art Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR)
Microscale Thermophoresis (MST)
Microscale Thermophoresis (MST) measures the motion of molecules along microscopic thermal gradients to detect changes in hydration shell, charge or size that occur upon binding events. Sygnature Discovery uses a high throughput automated NanotemperTM Monolith instrument in these applications for determining binding affinity (KD), stoichiometry and other aspects of interactions.
Figure 1: The re-orientation of water molecules following the binding of a small molecule to a target. Image courtesy of Nanotemper™ Technology.
- MST measures molecular motion along a microscopic thermal gradient
- Allows determination of affinity, stoichiometry, thermodynamics, mechanism of action (MOA), stability, aggregation
- No requirement for immobilisation
- Target is chemically labelled for greater sensitivity of detection
- High throughput technology: accurate KDs in minutes
- No molecular weight limitations
- Rapid assay optimisation, low consumable costs, maintenance free
- Useful for compounds with expected affinities ranging from 1 nM to 10 mM
