Analytical Ultracentrifugation in Aotearoa: A Brief History of the Technique and its Place Among Other Tools Used to Investigate Biomolecular Interactions.

Analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) is a powerful and versatile tool for studying biomolecular interactions. The purpose of this commentary is to provide foundational knowledge of the technique and its uses through the presentation of two case studies in which AUC provides key data to answer research questions. The first case study concerns a practical formulation problem associated with mRNA-based vaccines. The second case study showcases how we tackle the problem of defining the properties of a protein-DNA interaction that regulates gene expression. We place AUC in the context of other biophysical techniques that we use in the Biomolecular Interaction Centre, based at the University of Canterbury in Ōtautahi Christchurch. We hope this work may prove helpful for protein biochemists and biophysicists in Aotearoa New Zealand in selecting appropriate approaches for investigating biomolecular interactions and encourage them to contact us if any of the resources presented herein may be useful to them. We also use a portion of this commentary to acknowledge and document the foundational contributions of the early innovators in AUC in Aotearoa New Zealand.