unfoldprotein.m

Calculates protein melting point, Tm, from unfolding data in three different ways.

UNFOLDPROTEIN(data, bracket) calculates the melting temperature, Tm, of a protein from a given Nx2 array of unfolding data (with N >= 10). In the case of unfolding studies performed using circular dichroism spectroscopy, the second Tm calculated using the maximum of the first derivative of the CD signal as a function of temperature should be used in order to minimize errors due to baseline correction. The midpoint method is the more classical way to calculate Tm, but it is susceptible to non-ideal baseline measurements. Van't Hoff analysis is unreliable in the case of CD, and should only be considered reliable in the context of differential scanning calorimetry experiments. For more information, see <John, D.M. & Weeks, K.M. van't Hoff enthalpies without baselines. Protein Sci 9, 1416-9 (2000).>

Two data files, ThermalDenaturationData_1.txt and ThermalDenaturationData_2.txt are included for testing. If you run into any bugs or have any suggestions, feel free to let me know—I'll try to take them into account as soon as possible.

This implementation copyright Kristopher White, 2009, but is freely available to copy, use, or modify as long as this line is maintained.