A Preparative Ultracentrifuge and Rotors for Separation and Analysis of Biological Samples

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Funds are requested to purchase a new preparative ultracentrifuge and three ultracentrifuge rotors which will be used by four laboratories in the Department of Veterinary Molecular Biology at Montana State University. Ultracentrifuges are essential equipment for all research in biochemistry and molecular biology. Currently, there is only one ultracentrifuge in this Department, a 22 year old Beckman L5-65, which is not capable of meeting the Department's current and future needs. In addition, the L5 is rapidly becoming obsolete, and new drives will no longer be available for repairing this centrifuge. The increased demand for ultracentrifugation resulting from the additional faculty added to this Department over the last year (both Dr. Quinn and Dr. Pascual were hired in 1995) and in the coming year (another faculty member will be added to the Department in the next year) further emphasizes our need for the requested equipment. The Department also lacks sufficient rotors to carry out the proposed research, and this proposal includes 3 new rotors. Currently, this Department has an older fixed-angle rotor (10 years old), a swinging bucket rotor, and a derated Type 50 rotor. None of these rotors are capable of running at speeds over 60,000 r.p.m. and probably should not be used over 45,000 r.p.m. The rotors requested in this proposal are capable of much higher speeds and would facilitate faster and more efficient separations. The new equipment will be used primarily by the labs of Drs. Quinn, Jutila, Pascual, and Burgess, so this proposal contains descriptions of their projects that utilize ultracentrifugation. These projects are all funded by research grants from a number of agencies such as the N1H, NSF, and USDA. Ultracentrifugation is required as part of these projects for density gradient analysis of proteins and protein complexes, subcellular fractionation, membrane purification, and DNA purification. In addition, a small amount of centrifuge time (5%) will be available for use in Departmental classes for training students in the use of modern biological instrumentation.