Flow birefringence

In biochemistry, flow birefringence is a hydrodynamic technique for measuring the rotational diffusion constants (or, equivalently, the rotational drag coefficients). The birefringence of a solution sandwiched between two concentric cylinders is measured as a function of the difference in rotational speed between the inner and outer cylinders. The flow tends to orient an ellipsoidal particle (typically, a protein, virus, etc.) in one direction, whereas rotational diffusion (tumbling) causes the molecule to become disoriented. The equilibrium between these two processes as a function of the flow provides a measure of the axial ratio of the ellipsoidal particle.

Protein structural analysis

High resolution	Cryo-electron microscopy X-ray crystallography NMR Electron crystallography EPR

Medium resolution	Fiber diffraction Mass spectrometry SAXS

Spectroscopic	NMR Circular dichroism Dual-polarization interferometry Absorbance Fluorescence Fluorescence anisotropy

Translational Diffusion	Analytical ultracentrifugation Size exclusion chromatography Light scattering NMR

Rotational Diffusion	Fluorescence anisotropy Flow birefringence Dielectric relaxation NMR

Chemical	Hydrogen-deuterium exchange Site-directed mutagenesis Chemical modification

Thermodynamic	Equilibrium unfolding

Computational	Protein structure prediction Molecular docking

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Flow birefringence

See also