Molecular Medicine
and Pathology is a modern department, fully equipped to undertake research in
cellular and molecular biology, genetics and laboratory medicine. We currently
occupy laboratory and office space spread across the second and third floors
of the Pathology Building and the third floor of the Clinical Building within
the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.
Research core facility
The department operates a research core facility which houses three separate services
Biacore 2000 Molecular Biosensor(55.4KB PDF)
Laboratories
There are 32 separate laboratories of various sizes. Each is equipped with a variety
of essential items such as PCR machines, bench top microfuges and low speed centrifuges.
Tissue culture
There are tissue culture facilities on all three floors containing a total of 12
tissue culture hoods, 14 CO2 incubators, several microscopes including Olympus IMT-2
and Leica DMRBE microscopes. Cell culture facilities are supported by several liquid
nitrogen dewars for long term cell storage. Cell phenotype analysis is supported by
a Becton Dickinson FACScan and a Becton Dickinson FACS Vantage cell sorter.
Molecular biology
Apart from standard equipment for routine molecular biology, the department also has
a Storm Phospho/FluoroImager for quantitative radiographic imaging and a Kodak M35
X-Omat film processor. For routine low scale microbial work there are three orbital
shakers and one warm room. Gel documentation systems include an Eagle Eye II Gel
Imager and 2 Polaroid MP-4 Land Cameras.
Biochemistry
For biochemical studies, there are two walk-in cold rooms a BioCad Sprint HPLC,
various LKB Multirac fraction collectors, Perkin Elmer UV/Vis Spectrometer, a Vertis
freeze dryer and several gel dryers. High speed centrifuges including a Sorvall
WX 100 Ultracentrifuge, a Beckman Avanti J-25I and two Sorvall high
speed machines. General equipment includes 4 -80°C freezers, a Misonix sonicator,
several microwaves, powerpacks, and computers. For medium scale fermentation and
recombinant protein expression in bacteria, there is a New Brunswick Bioflow 3000
fermentor and a Biocad Sprint HPLC.
The department shares a dedicated radioisotope suite used for radioiodination. For
radionucleotide work, there are several counters including a Packard Cobra II Auto-Gamma
counter, a Wallac Trilux scintillation counter, a Wallac 1205 Betaplate counter
and a Beckman LS8000 counter.
Computers
The department is served by both Mac and Intel based desktop computers on a high
speed UTP ethernet network to the rest of the University. Most staff have personal
computers and a number of shared computers are available for graduate student use.
The department shares a silicon graphics workstation with the Cancer Research Loboratories
which runs several molecular modeling packages.
Animal facilities
Members of the Department share a vivarium, administered by the
Vernon Jansen Unit, to house mice and a Cobalt 60 irradiation suite, administered by the Oncology
Department is available for use. The department
houses a large zebrafish facility.
Library
The
library includes a collection of frequently accessed reference
manuals for molecular biology and immunology, as well as several legal texts relevant
to our field of work.
