| Summary: | The analytical ultracentrifuge (AUC) invented by T. Svedberg has now become an extremely versatile and diverse tool in Biochemistry and Polymer Science for the characterisation of the sizes, shapes and interactions of particles ranging in size from a few nm to tens of microns, or in molecular weight, M (molar mass) terms from a few hundred Daltons to hundreds of millions. We illustrate this diversity by reviewing recent work on (i) small lignin-like isoeugenols of M ~0.4-0.9kDa for archaeological wood conservation (ii) protein-like association of a functional amino-cellulose, M=3.25kDa (iii) a small glycopeptide antibiotic (M~1.5 kDa) and its association with a protein involved in antibiotic resistance (M~47kDa) (iv) tetanus toxoid protein TTP (M~150kDa) and (v) the incorporation of TTP into two huge glycoconjugate vaccines of molecular weights reaching 100 MDa. In illustrating the diversity we will highlight developments in hydrodynamic analysis which have made the AUC such an exciting and important instrument, and point to a potential future development for extending its capability to highly concentrated systems.
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