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Biophysics instrument

Biophysics Core Facility

The Biophysics Core Facility is located in the Frick Chemistry Laboratory, rooms B25 and B06. It houses a wide range of instrumentation dedicated to support biophysical characterization of proteins, DNA and other biological macromolecules and their interactions. The newly established core facility is a joint venture of the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Molecular Biology.
Scheduling time on each instrument in the biophysics core facility is done via the iLAB portal. Princeton users, please contact your lab manager to obtain an iLAB account. External users, please contact the core facility for more information.
The following instruments are currently available for researchers from Princeton University. External users not affiliated with Princeton need to contact the facility director for training and access.
    • Analytical Ultracentrifuge (AUC)
      Instrument: Optima AUC from Beckman Coulter Life Sciences with absorbance and interference detection modules, two-rotors, An-60 Ti and An-50 Ti are available.
      Applications: Determination of molecular mass, aggregation, oligomeric states and stoichiometry, conformation and shape of proteins in solution.
    • Biolayer interferometry (OCTET)
      Instrument: Forte bio OCTET Red 96e with temperature control
      Applications: Analysis of biomolecular kinetics (rates of association and dissociation), binding affinities and quantification of macromolecules.
    • Circular Dichroism Spectrometer (CD)
      Instrument: Chirascan CD spectrometer from Applied Photophysics.
      Applications: Analysis of secondary structure of proteins and chiral molecules, binding and melting studies.
    • Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)
      Instrument: MicroCal PEAQ-DSC
      Applications: Thermal stability of proteins and other biomolecules.
    • Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS)
      Instrument: DynaPro Nanostar from Wyatt technology
      Applications: Analysis of homogeneity of biological samples (protein solutions etc), determination of hydrodynamic radius, molecular masses and oligomeric states.
    • Fluorimeter
      Instrument: Fluorolog from Horiba with temperature control and fluorescence anisotropy modules
      Applications: Measurement of fluorescence and fluorescence anisotropy, binding and melting studies.
    • Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC)
      Instrument: MicroCal PEAQ-ITC
      Applications: Measurement of binding affinities, enthalpy and entropy changes.
    • Microscale Thermophoresis (MST)
      Instrument: Monolith NT.115 (Blue/Red) from NanoTemper
      Applications: Measurement of binding affinities.
    • Multimode Plate Reader
      Instrument: Spectramax iD5 from Molecular Devices
      Applications: Measurement of Absorbance, fluorescence, fluorescence polarization, luminescence and TRF in 96 and 384 well formats.
    • Stopped Flow
      Instrument: SX20 Stopped-Flow spectrometer from Applied Photophysics. A Single mixing chamber, a monochromator for excitation and different filters for emission are available.
      Applications: Biomolecular Kinetics.