About Us

The National Analytical Ultracentrifugation Facility (NAUF) was established at the University of Connecticut in 1988 by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Creation of this facility follows the fundamental contributions of its staff to the development of analytical ultracentrifugation to a wide range of basic and applied problems for over a quarter century. The facility has three XL-I analytical ultracentrifuges with their associated electronic equipment and computers. The facility is available to investigators for basic research through facility scientists or by collaboration with one of its principal investigators. In 2003 the facility moved into a laboratory space in the new Biology-Physics Building at the University of Connecticut Main Campus in Storrs, CT.

The mission of the NAUF is threefold:

• Engineering of hardware and software for easier and more accurate data acquisition, manipulation and analysis.
• Collaborative research with academia and industry.
• Training of scientists, technicians and students through conferences and workshops.

Instrumentation & Software

Three Beckman XL-I Analytical Ultracentrifuges provide sedimentation data via the absorption optics and interference optics in a user friendly software environment.  Dr. David A. Yphantis and his assistants have developed software for data acquisition, manipulation and analysis.  These include "WinMATCH", a program for the determination of when equilibrium has been obtained, and "WinREEDIT" for editing raw data graphically.  They have also developed a program called "WinNONLIN" for analyzing data from self-associating systems which can help determine the model of association, the monomer molecular weight and the equilibrium constant for each step of the reaction for both ideal and non ideal molecules. In addition, the facility uses programs developed by others, most notably "DC/DT+" developed by Dr. John Philo , "Sedanal" developed by Dr. Walter Stafford and Peter Sherwood, and "Sedfit" and "Sedphat" developed by Dr. Peter Schuck of N.I.H.

Workshops & Training

A multi-day workshop is held annually to catalyze the exchange of technology and expertise, and to train scientists, students and technicians for industry and academic or research institutions.  Instruction includes the planning of experiments and analysis of data. Programs for editing and analysis of sedimentation data are distributed at the workshop.  The lectures from the 2006 workshop are available in PDF format from our FTP site at ftp://spin6.mcb.uconn.edu/pub/workshop2006 .

NEW! Mar.24,2008 The 17th annual workshop will be held on June 16 through June 19 at the Boston Biomedical Research Institute, 64 Grove Steet, Watertown, Massachusetts 02472. Please go to http://aucrl.bbri.org for further details.

Collaborations

Collaborations with academia and Industry are performed on a cost basis. For further information contact Dr. James L. Cole by phone at (860) 486-4333 or email at James.Cole@uconn.edu.