Parts of centrifuge machine Centrifugation Techniques Uses of Centrifugation Applications of Centrifugation

1. Lecture no : 2
BioMedical Instrumentation-II
Mr. Muhammad Moazzam
Lecturer(Biomedical Department)
University of the Lahore

2. Contents
•Parts of centrifuge machine
•Centrifugation Techniques
•Uses of Centrifugation
•Applications of Centrifugation

3. Parts of centrifuge machine
• Chamber
• Rotor
• Cups
• Motor
• Motor control assembly
• Power switch
• Timer
• Tachometer

4. Parts of centrifuge machine

5. Centrifuge Machine

6. Desk top
centrifuges
High speed
centrifuges
Ultracentrifuges
Analytical
Preparative
Type of Centrifugation

7. Types of Centrifuge depends on :
•Maximum speed of sedimentation
•Presence /absence of vacuum
•Temperature control refrigeration.
•Volume of sample and capacity
of centrifugation tubes

8. Types of rotor
Vertical
tube
rotors
Swinging-
bucket rotors
Fixed
angle
rotors

9. Types of rotor
Fixed angle rotors
• Tubes are held at angle of
14 to 400 to thevertical.
• Particles move radially
outwards, travel a short
distance.
• Useful for differential
centrifugation
• Reorientation of the tube
occurs during acceleration
and deceleration of the
rotor.
Vertical tube rotors
•Held vertical parallel to rotor
axis.
•Particles move short
distance.
•Time of separation is shorter.
•Disadvantage: pellet may
fall back into solution at end
of centrifugation.

10. Types of rotor
Vertical tube rotorsFixed angle rotors

11. Swinging-bucket rotors
Sing out to horizontal position when
rotor accelerates.
Longer distance of travel may allow
better separation, such as in density
gradient centrifugation.
Easier to withdraw supernatant
without disturbing pellet.
Normally used for density-gradient
centrifugation.
Types of rotor

12. Types of rotor
Swinging-bucket rotors

13. Type of Centrifugation
•Small Benchtop
•Microcentrifuges
•High Speed centrifuges
•Ultracentrifuges
•Large-capacity preparative centrifuge

14. 1. Small Benchtop
•Mainly used for mall amount of material that rapidly
sediment like yeast cells, erythrocytes etc., they
offer maximized capacity in a compact footprint,
accomodating multi-laboratory settings with the
flexibility to adapt to your evolving clinical and
research needs:
•Slow speed(eg: up to 4000 RPM)
•Common in clinical lab (blood/plasma/serum
separation)
• Can take approx (up to) 100 tubes, depending on
diameter

15. 1. Small Benchtop
•Research Applications: Cellular
Biology, Microbiology, Genomics / Molecular
Biology, Proteomics, Biochemistry, Pharmaceutical
Studies.
•Clinical Applications:
•Clinical Chemistry, Clinical
Microbiology, Hematology,
Immunology, Clinical Studies

16. 2. Microcentrifuges
(“microfuge”, “Eppendorf”)
take tubes of small vols (up
to 2 mL)
Very common in
biochemistry/molecular
biology/ biological labs
It can generate forces up to
~15,000 x g
with or without refrigeration

17. 3.High Speed centrifuges
15,000 – 20,000 RPM
centrifugal field of 100,000 g
large sample capacity depending on rotor
 normally refrigerated
 research applications.
 Differentiation separation
nucleus, mitochondrial,
of
protein
precipitate, large intact organelle, cellular
debris, bulky protein aggregates.

18. 4. Ultracentrifuges
65,000 RPM (100,000’s x g)
limited lifetime
Expensive
require special rotors
care in use – balance critical!
research applications
The high speeds used in such devices generate considerable
amounts of heat
Therefore cooling arrangements and vaccuum are required in
ultracentrifuges

19. 5. Large-capacity preparative centrifuge
•Centrifugal fields of 3000 to 7000g.
•Efficient separation of coarse precipitates or
whole cells.
•Designed to combine dependable
performance and ease‐of‐use with advanced
functionality, our large capacity
centrifuges provide reproducible separations
for high‐throughput applications such as blood
banking and bioprocessing.

20. 5. Large-capacity preparative centrifuge

21. Uses of Centrifugation
•Following are the applications of centrifugation
technique in different areas of research like:
•Environmental science: In the treatment of
wastewater.
•Molecular science: Helps in the extraction of
biomolecules like DNA, RNA, protein etc.
•Medical research: Helps in the separation of
different components from urine, blood serum etc.
.

22. Uses of Centrifugation
•Chemical science: Helps in the process of
uranium enrichment.
•Food science: Helps in the production of
skimmed milk by removing fat.
•Therefore, we can conclude that the
centrifugation technique has broad
applicability in the field of research
biochemistry, molecular biology, cellular
biology and medical science

23. References :
 Tietz – Clinical Chemistry And Molecular Diagnostic
 Keith Wilson and John Walker – Principle And Technique In
Biochemistry And Molecular Biology.
 Avinash Upadhyay – Biophysical Chemistry.
 Internet sources.