Instrument Catalog

Analytical Ultracentrifuge Beckman Coulter Proteomelab XL-I
Short Name: AU
Instrument Type: Solution Biophysics
Instrument Location: KCL 3
Date of Acquisition: November 2009

Analytical ultracentrifugation is a column-free separation technique that measures the relative change in the distribution of molecular weights, providing a way to measure heterogeneity, stoichiometry and self-association of proteins, oligomers, aggregates, particles, colloids, and small structures in solution. 

Applied Photophysics Chirascan Circular Dichroism Spectrometer
Short Name: CD
Instrument Type: Solution Biophysics
Instrument Location: KCL 3
Date of Acquisition: September 2013

Chirascan is a modern, high performance circular dichroism (CD) spectrometer operating in the ultraviolet and visible wavelength range. It is typically used to probe the secondary structure or conformation of bio-molecules.

Standard Operating Procedure

DLS Dynamic Light Scattering Wyatt DynaPro PlateReader II
Short Name: DLS
Instrument Type: Solution Biophysics
Instrument Location: KCL 11
Date of Acquisition: October 2013

Dynamic light scattering measures the diffusion rate of molecules or particles in solution by observing the fluctuations in scattered light from a laser passing through a sample. The sensitivity of DLS increases with increasing molecular size, with a typical lower size limit of 0.5 nanometers and upper size limit of 10 micrometers.

Typical applications for DLS include:

  • Screening macromolecules prior to crystallization trials
  • Measuring the stability of protein samples for NMR analysis
  • Monitoring molecular aggregation
  • Characterizing nanoparticles

The DynaPro PlateReader II is set up to make these measurements in 96, 384, or 1536 well plates using as little as 5 microliters of sample.

Standard Operating Procedure

TA NanoITC
Short Name: ITC
Instrument Type: Solution Biophysics
Instrument Location: KCL 16B
Date of Acquisition: August 2014

By determining heat changes associated with binding between any two biomolecules, ITC measures all binding parameters in a single label-free, in-solution experiment.

TCSPC TD-Fluor Horiba Fluorolog 3 Time Domain Fluorimeter
Short Name: TCSPC
Instrument Type: Solution Biophysics
Instrument Location: KCL 16B
Date of Acquisition: December 2009

The Fluorolog 3 is a modular fluorimeter that can be set up to make time-domain fluorescence measurements at specific wavelengths, or steady-state fluorescence measurements over a range of excitation and/or emission wavelengths.