Interactions in protein solutions near crystallisation; a colloid physics approach

摘要

I present a review of current ideas from colloid physics which might be relevant in order to understand and oneset of crystallisation and amorphous aggregation processes in protein solution. In particular, the inadequacy of DLVO theory to account for all phenomenological aspects of crystallisation, such as salt-specificity, and for the basic features of the phase diagram, such as the presence of a metastable fluid-fluid separation, is discussed.