Sidebar: It's Okay To Be Fast
 BRAINY: Isco's Foxy 200 collects HPLC fractions by time, volume, or peak.
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"Ultimately these systems are a set of pumps, a controller, and a fraction collector," says Roland Strong, a protein crystallographer at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle who studies protein interactions involved in the mucosal immune system. Strong observes that "there must be hundreds of different types" of separation columns that users can plug in. That versatility allows researchers with varying needs to share similar setups by simply exchanging columns and solvent types, easing the strain on everyone's budget. For example, Strong says, "there are three protein crystallography labs here: We each have a different company's [instrumentation] system, and we swap columns back and forth." Columns may separate on the basis of a sample's size, ionic character, hydrophobicity, affinity for another molecule, or isoelectric point (the pH at which a ...