The department was established immediately after the opening of Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry as a department of sedimentation analysis. It was the first methodological center in this field in the country. The new methods of studies of biopolymers were developed in the department. These methods allowed to study dozens of proteins, determine their molecular masses and analyzed the processes of dissociation-association in multi-subunit complexes. The subunit composition was determined for many important enzymes, such as cytochrome P-450, inorganic phosphatase etc. In long-term studies of immunoglobulins in human blood several new forms of these proteins were identified and their connections with specific pathologies were established. Analysis of specific fluctuations during sedimentation allowed to detect the immune complexes of macroglobulins in the blood of the patients with rheumatoid arthritis and myocardial infarction. An important factor that affects the proteins during centrifugation is a high hydrostatic pressure, which appears as a result of centrifugal force action. For studies of this effect a special device was constructed, which allowed obtaining an important data on enzyme's behavior under high pressure. The recent works in the department were concentrated on calorimetric studies of domain structure of proteins, conformational transitions and denaturation.

1. Lapuk V.A., Chernyak V.Ya., Magretova N.N. Some pecularities of fragmentation of monoclonal rheumatoid immunoglobulin M with "hot" trypsin. Biochemistry (Moscow) (1996) 61, 85-88.

2. Chernyak V.Ya., Kogan-Yasny V.V. Visualisation of reversible macromolecular reactions in an analytical ultracentrifuge. Eur. J. Biochem. (1988) 178, 465-469.

3. Tsuprun V.I., Myasoedva K.N., Berndt P., Sograf O.N., Orlova E.N., Chernyak V.Ya., Archakov A.I., Skulachev V.P. Quaternary structure of the liver microsomal cytochrome P-450. FEBS Lett. (1986) 205, 35-40

4. Chernyak V.Ya., Drachev V.A., Nikolaeva N.G., Chernyak B.V. High-pressure enzyme kinetics. Lactate dehydrogenase in an optical cell that allows a reaction to be started under high pressure. FEBS Lett. (1984) 169, 97-100.

5. Chernyak V.Ya., Magretova N.N. An "all-speed" autocalibration method for sedimentation equilibrium in dilute homogeneous and multicomponent solutions. (1982) Anal. Biochem. 123, 101-109.