Biotech And Drug Industry Interest Fueling The Centrifuge Revolution

Centrifuge Revolution (The Scientist, Vol:10, #6, p. 18-19, March 18, 1996) Increased interest by the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries in powerful instruments capable of separating the smallest of molecules has put a new spin on an old laboratory standard-the centrifuge. Small centrifuges (microfuges) and larger tabletop instruments critical for cell separations and DNA applications can be found on benches in practically every molecular biology laboratory. The larger ultracentrifu

Written byHolly Ahern

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Centrifuge Revolution (The Scientist, Vol:10, #6, p. 18-19, March 18, 1996)

Increased interest by the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries in powerful instruments capable of separating the smallest of molecules has put a new spin on an old laboratory standard-the centrifuge. Small centrifuges (microfuges) and larger tabletop instruments critical for cell separations and DNA applications can be found on benches in practically every molecular biology laboratory. The larger ultracentrifuges are now used by scientists to perform analytical and highly quantitative analyses of biological molecules in solution.

'WHISPER QUIET': Savant's SFA13K miucrocentrifuge, left, and SFR13K refrigerated microcentrifuge respond to user's need for operation at lower noise levels.

Along with these powerful machines, specially designed centrifuge tubes and containers have made their way to the laboratory products market. These supplies can withstand centrifugal forces hundreds of thousands of times the force of gravity.

The theory that explains how particles move through a centrifugal ...

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Meet the Author

Holly Ahern
Holly Ahern is a science writer and an assistant professor of biology at Adirondack Community College in Queensbury, N.Y.
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