The primary coordinator of AU Facility Use is Dr. Leslie Poole (Dept. of Biochemistry, (336) 716-6711), in cooperation with Drs. Roy Hantgan (Dept. of Biochemistry, (336) 716-4675) and Doug Lyles (Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, (336) 716-4237). Potential users of the facility should contact one of these three individuals to discuss the possibility of carrying out sedimentation analyses and should read the information below concerning policies regarding data collection and analyses.
AU coordinators will try to make themselves available to help new users operate the equipment (there are no paid technicians operating this facility). For the first round of training for a new project, the coordinators will confer with the PI, postdocs and/or graduate students on the nature of the information being sought and the appropriate experiments to be carried out. Sample quality and preparation for AU will also be discussed, and an appropriate block of time for use of the equipment will be scheduled. Techniques for assembly and loading of the sample cells will be demonstrated by the coordinator, and practiced by the personnel who will be carrying out future AU experiments. The operating software will also be demonstrated as the runs are set up and started.
Once the data has been collected, time must be invested in analyses to extract information about the size, oligomerization state, association constants and/or shape-dependent hydrodynamic properties of the system, concentrating on the specific type of information being sought. One or more of the AU coordinators will necessarily be involved to get users started with the software and do the primary data analysis on those systems which are non-interacting single species. More complicated analyses will be the responsibility of the PI, and may involve postdocs or graduate students carrying out the project. While the coordinators will make every effort to see that there is sufficient guidance in software use and appropriate types of data analyses, extensive involvement of an AU coordinator will be appropriate only with an agreement of coauthorship on resulting publications. Technicians may be involved in sample preparation and cell assembly if multiple experiments are to be performed providing the AU coordinator feels they have received sufficient training and demonstrated full ability to handle the data collection. Data analysis, however, requires the direct intellectual involvement of the PI, or of the designated postdoc or graduate student(s) in charge of the project. Extensive reading and intellectual input, in addition to further experimentation, may well be involved for characterization of multiple components, non-ideal, and/or interacting systems.
The Optima XL-A analytical ultracentrifuge can be used for:
Other equipment is available within the facility for: