Analytical ultracentrifugation in the pharmaceutical industry

The analytical ultracentrifuge has been cited as 'still the tool of choice' to characterize associating systems. The original development of the analytical ultracentrifuge helped provide the key data for the cornerstone of modern molecular biology and protein chemistry. At the height of its popularity few major labs in the country were without an analytical model E. Unfortunately, despite some of the improvements in the model E, the technology rapidly became a specialized area for researchers interested in improving the instrumentation for rapid data access and analysis. As cheaper and easier techniques were developed to measure rough molecular weights and obtain qualitative information on macromolecular association, the use of the centrifuge rapidly declined. Recently, with the advent of newer instrumentation, proliferation of user groups, workshops, and establishment of the National Analytical Ultracentrifugation Center at Storrs Connecticut, the technology has reemerged and is being used to a greater extent in academia as well as the pharmaceutical industry. This minireview, hopefully, has captured many of the recent advances and problems being investigated in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology arena.