Analytical ultracentrifugation as a contemporary biomolecular research tool.

Analytical ultracentrifugation has again become a widely used biomolecular research technique for determining sample purity, characterizing assembly and disassembly mechanisms of biomolecular complexes, determining subunit stoichiometries, detecting and characterizing macromolecular conformational changes, and measuring equilibrium constants and thermodynamic parameters for self- and hetero-associating systems. Concomitant with the availability of modern instrumentation is a strong need for biomedical scientists to become acquainted with the fundamental principles of analytical ultracentrifugation and the new data analysis methodologies that have greatly transformed this technique as it exists today.