Practical Aspects of Multiwavelength Analytical Ultracentrifugation

Abstract

Open-source Multiwavelength Analytical Ultracentrifugation (MWL-AUC) detection systems have been evolving for over a decade. Continual advances emerging out of several research groups have brought the instrumentation technology to increasingly higher levels of performance. The capabilities of MWL-AUC have been documented in many publications, demonstrating the applicability of broad spectrum absorbance acquisitions in analytical ultracentrifugation to a wide array of scientific fields. Despite numerous examples of the usefulness and unique advantages of MWL-AUC, the adoption of the technology by more research groups has been slow. The complexity of the hardware, integration within an ultracentrifuge platform and lack of practical construction and operational information is the likely source of reluctance. Here, we clearly describe the challenges facing a researcher considering adopting MWL-AUC technology in their own laboratories, and provide the information necessary to implement and operate a MWL-AUC system. The discussion includes details of detector assembly, optical alignment, and acquisition parameter settings necessary to achieve high quality experimental results.