Daniel Otzen, iNANO & Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus university, Denmark

Cleanliness is next to godliness: How soaps interact with proteins

Protein-surfactant interactions are both a topic of great intrinsic interest and an area full of applications within e.g. the detergent industry and cosmetics. In particular (an)ionic surfactants interact strongly with proteins and expand the range of conformations available to them. The field has gathered momentum over the last decade or so thanks to the increased application of scattering techniques in close collaboration with complementary techniques to report on protein-surfactant stoichiometry and step-wise changes in protein structure. I will provide highlights of these efforts which pay homage to SAXS as a central technique to elucidate structures and mechanisms of formation of these complexes.

The lecture is part of the symposium Recent progress in small-angle scattering from soft matter and biological systems on the occasion of Professor Jan Skov Pedersen's 60th birthday.