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DBI Room 169
Contact: Dr. Abraham Lenhoff
(302) 831-8989
lenhoff@udel.edu
Overview
The DBI protein characterization Facility consists of a Beckman Coulter ProteomeLab XL-I analytical ultracentrifuge.
The ProteomeLab XL-I analytical ultracentrifuge can characterize a variety of biophysical properties of macromolecules such as molecular weight, sedimentation coefficient, diffusion coefficient, equilibrium constant and stoichiometry. The abundant information provided by the analytical ultracentrifuge can assess the sample heterogeneity (aggregation and purity), molecular conformation (folded or unfolded), composition (assembled or unassembled) and thermodynamic properties of the interacting systems.
The ProteomeLab XL-I is configured with a scanning UV/Vis detection system and Rayleigh Interference Optics. The UV/Vis detection system provides sensitivity for low-concentration samples and selectivity for optimizing detection based on the sample’s maximum absorbance. The Rayleigh Interference Optics provides the capability to measure the change in refractive index resulting from changes in sample concentration. The XL-I can collect data from both detection systems sequentially, to provide the broadest spectrum of data for protein characterization in solution. In addition, the facility has both Anti-60 and Anti-50 rotors which can run up to 28 different sample/reference pairs in a single run. The ability to run different samples provides researchers to study biomacromolecules of interest in various conditions (pH, ionic strength, concentration).