Techniques for the Identification and Characterization of Biomolecules

Biomolecules or organic molecules including carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and nucleic acids are the important constituents of cellular organelles. These molecules are typically involved in fundamental biological processes such as cell division, development, morphogenesis, maintenance and metabolic activities of different tissues in the body. The primary structures of the above mentioned four principal organic biomolecules comprise the chains of building blocks or monomeric units. These building blocks are arranged and joined together in a peculiar fashion and stabilized by a number of factors including hydrogen bonding, covalent bonding, ionic, stacking and van der Waals interactions. Identification and characterization of biomolecules require simple, cost-effective, less labour-intensive, reliable, reproducible extraction/isolation and purification methods with high throughputs. Advent of automated high-throughput cost-effective technologies such as chromatographic, mass spectrometric, nucleic acid sequencing methods, etc. offers better selectivity and sensitivity with lower limit of quantification and thus enables the surge in growth and scope of analytical techniques in biological research. The present chapter discusses the use of various high-throughput bioanalytical techniques in assessing the sample composition and determination of complex macromolecules.