User:Jamie Nunziata/Notebook/Protease Research/2015/10/07

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Objective The objective of today's lab was to use the Ocean Optic spectrometer to measure the absorbance and determine the rate of the degradation of AuNP fibers from 1µM a-chymotrypsin. Procedure 4 fiber samples were spun down at 300rpm for 10 minutes and was carefully brought into solution from 1mL of Tris buffer, keeping the fibers as intact as possible. 1944 µL of Tris buffer and all 4 fiber samples were added to the Ocean Optic cuvette. Immediately after the second save file was added, 56µL of 53.517 µM a-chymotrypsin was added to the cuvette, making the final molarity 1µM. Absorbance was collected every 2 minutes for 2.5 hours. Data Note: Bubbles formed at the stir bar of the cuvette, which was unusual. Also, the rate at which a-chymotrypsin degrades the AuNP fibers may not be accurately portrayed during this trial because too much force was applied when suspending the fibers, so majority of the fibers were chopped up before the protease was added.