Research papers of Andrew Cronshaw, who worked for the University of Edinburgh as a biochemist from c. 1982, alongside Prof. Michael Gardner, Prof. Richard Ambler, Prof. Alastair Aitken and others. It includes textbook, instrumental booklets, instrument promotion documents, correspondence, and instrument data outputs. These items were rescued from several clear outs and laboratory moves, were curated and deemed important for future generations.

Context:

There were a series of major changes in the analysis of proteins that occurred between the 1960s and 2017. Analyses in the 1960s relied on fairly basic, now perhaps considered primitive techniques. These were principally, paper chromatography, thin layer chromatography (TLC) and automated amino acid analysis (AAA). In the early1980s most researchers worked in laboratories without very high cost instrumental analysers. Separate distinct processes were linked but often the different stages were carried out manually.

The advent of computing and later, the sequencing of the DNA from the human and multi-species genomes enabled rapid technological advances. In the mid-1980s HPLC with Edman sequencing was the dominant process of protein identification but the by 1990s mass spectrometry emerged as the replacement and remains the dominant technique today.

Click here to see the full contextual information provided by Andrew Cronshaw, including a list of Protein Analyser instruments used at the University of Edinburgh.