Equipment Park

The Equipment Park provides access to state-of-the-art molecular biology instrumentation and offers instruction in the correct and efficient usage of the technologies involved. The range of equipment is constantly reviewed and specific requests from research laboratory heads are encouraged. The technologies include:

• DNA Sequencing - Applied Biosystems 3730 DNA Analyzer
  The latest generation of capillary sequencing platforms, providing high-throughput, improved data quality and significant reduction in costs. Sequencing protocols, reaction mixes, quality control samples and trouble-shooting advice can be obtained from the Equipment Park staff.
  
  
• Nucleic Acid Extraction - Qiagen BIOROBOT 8000
  The service's three robotic systems provide a high throughput plasmid DNA extraction and quantification service, preparing approximately 5000 samples every month.
  
  
• Real-Time PCR Quantification - ABI Sequence Detection System/ Opticon Chromo 4 System
  The instruments are designed to detect fluorescence during the thermal cycling of polymerase chain reaction (PCR). By measuring the fluorescence intensity at each cycle, the system produces amplification plots that provide a more complete picture of the PCR.
  
  
• Infrared Imaging - Li-Cor Odyssey
  The imaging system offers a new way to analyze blots and gels. Odyssey is uniquely equipped with two infra red channels for direct fluorescence detection enabling the simultaneous probing of two separate target samples on the same gel, e.g. Western blots.
  
  
• Protein/Peptide Purification - GE Ettan System
  The system is especially designed for sensitive manipulation and recovery technology. It provides secure isolation of ng and ug quantities of protein with preserved biological activity.
  
  
• Microarray Analysis - Affymetrix GeneChip Scanner
  GeneChip expression arrays enable researchers to monitor genome-wide expression profiles. This global view helps in the understanding of the biological mechanisms of complex diseases and processes.
  
  Tiling arrays can be used to identify novel transcriptional elements and evaluate antisense transcription. GeneChip mapping arrays allow researchers to perform linkage analysis, association and copy number studies.
  
  
• Advanced Liquid Handling - Beckman Biomek FX robot
  This robotic system has recently been purchased to enable the use of large libraries, including RNA Interference screens and chemical collections.

The Equipment Park manager is Graham Clark.