Optima™ XPN-80 Ultracentrifuge
Manufacturer: Beckman Coulter
The Optima™ XPN-80 Ultracentrifuge is a high-performance preparative ultracentrifugation system designed for high-speed separation of macromolecules, subcellular components, and nanoparticles. Capable of achieving extremely high centrifugal forces, it supports a wide range of biochemical, molecular biology, and biophysical applications.
The system accommodates multiple rotor types and tube formats, enabling flexible experimental design for density gradient centrifugation, differential centrifugation, and particle isolation. Advanced control and monitoring features ensure precise speed regulation, temperature stability, and reproducible performance, making it well suited for shared core environments.
Within a core facility, the Optima XPN-80 provides a reliable and scalable solution for complex sample preparation and fractionation, supporting both routine workflows and advanced method development.
Key Capabilities & Applications
- Ultracentrifugation at very high g-forces
- Density gradient centrifugation
- Sucrose, iodixanol, cesium chloride gradients
- Subcellular fractionation
- Nuclei, mitochondria, membranes
- Virus, vesicle, and nanoparticle isolation
- Exosomes / extracellular vesicles
- Protein complex and ribonucleoprotein studies
- Preparative workflows prior to downstream analysis
Core Value
The Optima XPN-80 enables the core facility to offer high-precision, high-capacity ultracentrifugation, a critical capability for users working with complex biological samples that require rigorous separation and enrichment. Its versatility and reliability make it an essential upstream tool that complements proteomics, biochemistry, and structural biology platforms.
GELFREE® 8100 Fractionation System
Manufacturer: Protein Discovery
The GELFREE® 8100 Fractionation System is a gel-based, solution-phase protein fractionation platform designed to separate intact proteins by molecular weight while preserving them in liquid form. Unlike traditional slab gels, the GELFREE system enables direct recovery of protein fractions for downstream mass spectrometry analysis.
By combining SDS-PAGE–style size separation with automated fraction collection, the GELFREE 8100 provides highly reproducible, molecular-weight–resolved protein fractions that are immediately compatible with enzymatic digestion and LC–MS/MS workflows. This makes it particularly powerful for reducing sample complexity prior to deep proteomic analysis.
Within a core facility, the GELFREE 8100 supports top-down, middle-down, and enhanced bottom-up proteomics, offering users an additional dimension of separation beyond conventional peptide-level fractionation.
Key Capabilities & Applications
- Molecular weight–based protein fractionation
- Solution-phase recovery of intact proteins
- Sample complexity reduction prior to LC–MS/MS
- Top-down and middle-down proteomics workflows
- Improved coverage of low-abundance proteins
- Complementary to peptide-level fractionation strategies
Core Value
The GELFREE 8100 enables the proteomics core to offer advanced protein-level fractionation, improving proteome depth, dynamic range, and identification confidence. It is especially valuable for complex samples where additional separation enhances downstream mass spectrometry performance.
Ettan™ IPGphor™ Isoelectric Focusing (IEF) System
Manufacturer: Cytiva (formerly GE Healthcare Life Sciences)
The Ettan IPGphor IEF System is a high-performance platform for isoelectric focusing (IEF) using immobilized pH gradient (IPG) strips. It enables precise separation of proteins based on their isoelectric point (pI) and serves as the gold-standard first dimension in two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2D-PAGE) workflows.
The system provides accurate control of voltage, current, and focusing time, ensuring high reproducibility and excellent resolution across a wide range of pH gradients. Its flexible programming allows optimization for diverse sample types, from simple protein mixtures to highly complex biological extracts.
Within a core facility, the Ettan IPGphor supports protein-level separation prior to SDS-PAGE or mass spectrometry, offering users an orthogonal separation strategy that complements LC–MS–based proteomics.
Key Capabilities & Applications
- Isoelectric focusing (IEF) using IPG strips
- First-dimension separation for 2D-PAGE
- High-resolution protein separation by pI
- Protein isoform and charge-variant analysis
- Comparative proteomics and differential expression studies
- Orthogonal fractionation prior to downstream analysis
Core Value
The Ettan IPGphor system enables the core facility to offer charge-based protein separation, expanding analytical options beyond molecular weight– or peptide-based methods. It is particularly valuable for resolving protein isoforms, post-translational modification–induced charge shifts, and complex proteomes where additional separation power is needed.