Analyzing Protein Structure With Elliptical Dichroism Spectrometer

Protein structure analysis is important as structure often dictates a proteins function. Currently, there are many instruments for analyzing protein structural features, such as Circular Dichroism (CD) Spectrometry. However, the large size and high cost of this method limit its applicability to well-organized and funded research environments only. Previously, we constructed an Elliptical Dichroism Spectrometer (EDS) instrument for the analysis of micromolecules (amino acids) chirality, as well macromolecule (protein) secondary structure analysis using both theoretical simulation methods and experimental validation. Furthermore, we demonstrated the EDS potential in distinguishing between protein derived from non-cancerous and cancerous pancreatic cell lines. We demonstrated the potential of the EDS for use as a protein secondary structure analysis instrument with potential application for noninvasive cancer detection using structural features exhibited by cancerous proteins as the source of detection. The simplified design of the EDS additionally tackles issues faced by current CD spectrometry by being smaller in size and lower in cost, allowing for greater applicability. Citation Format: Tommy Gao, Dali Sun. Analyzing non-cancerous and cancerous protein structure using a novel Elliptical Dichroism Spectrometer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2026; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2026 Apr 17-22; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2026;86(7 Suppl):Abstract nr 2416.