Canadian Center for Hydrodynamics

University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta
What the facility does

Analytical ultracentrifugation to characterize molecular interactions and solution composition

Areas of expertise

The Canadian Center for Hydrodynamics offers comprehensive solution characterization services for scientists studying nanoscale molecules in the solution phase by high-resolution biophysical solution methods such as analytical ultracentrifugation. Our approach is based on problem solving for research challenges in biochemistry, biophysics, structural biology, material science, polymer science and related areas of physical sciences.

Our services focus on contract and collaborative research with investigators from academia and industry in Canada and abroad. We provide solution characterization services including experimental design, protocol development, data analysis and report preparation for manuscripts, grant applications and FDA applications for analytical ultracentrifugation experiments.

Through our laboratory we provide detailed hydrodynamic characterization of nanoscale products, including pharmaceutical formulations, protein and nucleic acid systems, antibodies, nanoparticles and other colloidal materials in need of solution characterization. We specialize on multi-wavelength analysis to study hetero-interacting systems and identify stoichiometry and thermodynamic interaction parameters.

Our laboratory is equipped with the latest analytical ultracentrifuges featuring multi-wavelength UV-visible detection, as well as Rayleigh interference optics and fluorescence emission detection for fluorescent tags with 488 nm excitation.

Sectors of application: Biochemistry, Biophysics, Material Science, Pharmacology, Molecular Biology, Polymer Chemistry, Nanotechnology, and Structural Biology.

Research services

Consulting, experimental design, data acquisition, modeling, result interpretation and reporting, Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) processes, GMP process validation, FDA applications.

  • Sample Analysis: We provide custom analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) analysis of your solution samples to provide particle sizing, information about oligomerization behavior, aggregation quantification, Kd measurements, size, shape and density distributions. We can provide custom reports which summarize the results from the performed experiments. We accept any materials suitable for solution characterization, including biopolymers, nanomaterials, quantum dots and synthetic polymers.
  • Protocol Development: We can work with your team to develop systematic analysis protocols for formulation characterization, aggregation quantification, reproducibility and sameness studies.
  • Custom Software Applications: We develop custom software solutions for your hydrodynamic characterization questions. Our programmers will develop software and pursue any required validation for FDA approved characterization protocols.
  • Consulting: Our partner, AUC Solutions, offers customized consulting services to develop an in-house analytical ultracentrifugation capability. This includes advice on needed instrumentation and technician training.
Sectors of application
  • Agriculture, animal science and food
  • Chemical industries
  • Energy
  • Forestry and forest-based industries
  • Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment

Equipment

Function

Beckman-Coulter Optima AUC (Analytical Ultracentrifuge)

 

Features multi-wavelength UV-visible detection, Rayleigh interference optics, and fluorescence optics

Beckman-Coulter Optima AUC (Analytical Ultracentrifuge)

Dual UV/Visible detection for broad-band multiwavelength absorbance measurements, and Rayleigh Interference Optics

Beckman-Coulter Proteomelab XLA/XLF (Analytical Ultracentrifuge)

Equipped with single-wavelength UV/visible detection and fluorescence emission detection (Aviv Biomedical attachment)

4- and 8-position rotors

Available for high throughput analysis of up to 16 samples per experiment

Thermo Fisher GENESYS (Spectrophotometer)

Precision UV/visible detection from 200-750 nm

1.5M service unit US XSEDE allocation (Supercomputer)

Hydrodynamic modeling of analytical ultracentrifugation data

Local Linux cluster (Supercomputer)

Hydrodynamic modeling of analytical ultracentrifugation data

  • AUC Solutions, LLC
  • Northwest Biophysics Consortium
  • XSEDE (Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment)
  • SDSC (San Diego Supercomputer Center)
  • TeraGrid
  • Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)
  • Indiana University
  • Beckman-Coulter
  • Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE)
  • Forschungszentrum Jülich (Jülich Research Centre)

Title

URL

The Canadian Center for Hydrodynamics at the University of Lethbridge joins API

https://appliedpharma.ca/cch-joins-api/

University of Lethbridge-API partnership receives substantial grant from MITACS to develop COVID-19 treatment

https://www.ulethbridge.ca/communications/university-lethbridge-%E2%80%93-api-partnership-receives-substantial-grant-mitacs-develop

Grant to help University of Lethbridge-API partnership develop COVID-19 treatment

https://lethbridgeherald.com/news/lethbridge-news/2020/07/16/grant-to-help-u-of-l-api-partnership-develop-covid-19-treatment/

Application examples of Analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC)

https://www.cch.uleth.ca/applications.php

Services offered by the Canadian Center for Hydrodynamics

https://www.cch.uleth.ca/services.php