Mini Review : On the hydrodynamic analysis of conformation in mixed biopolymer systems

A brief review is given of some of the advances in hydrodynamic methodologies for studying the conformation and flexibility of biomacromolecules in mixed systems. We consider first of all evaluation of conformation type and flexibility in polymer systems with a quasi-continuous distribution of molecular weight – using polysaccharides and mucin glycoproteins as our main examples, and then conformation determination in discrete or paucidisperse systems such as aggregated antibody preparations. This paper is based on a presentation given at the European Polymer Congress meeting held in Graz, Austria July 12-17, 2009.