Biology Facilities and Equipment

Multi-User Molecular and Microbiological Facilities

In the north wing of the biology department, several adjoining rooms serve as a core resource for the full-spectrum of technologies needed in molecular biology and microbiology. These include:

• BioRad MiniOpticon Real-Time PCR Detection System (48 well capacity; purchased April 2010)
• BioRad DNA Engine Dyad Peltier Thermal Cycler (high throughput – 2 x 96 well capacity;
  purchased April 2008)
• Perkin Elmer GeneAmp 2400 PCR system (24 well, hot bonnet)
• Beckman Coulter Avanti JE high speed refrigerated centrifuge & rotors
• Thermo IEC Micromase RF refrigerated desktop microfuge
• Labline Environ incubating shaker (for bacteria culture / plasmid preps)
• BioRad SmartSpec spectrometer
• UV transilluminator
• Thelco laboratory oven (can be used to bake glassware for removal of RNAse)
• Labconco portable laminar flow hood (clean hood)
• MarketForge Sterilematic Autoclave (< 4 years old)
• Hirayama portable autoclave
• Large capacity Ultra Freezer (-80 C)
• Water systems available include:
  • Barnstead Nanopure Diamond water system (< 4years old)
  • RO water system (located in three labs)
  • Scotsman flaked ice maker - 80 lb storage capacity (< 4years old)

Imaging and Microscopy

Our Imaging Center (238 sq ft) houses a UVP Imaging Station for the capture and analysis of UV and chemi-luminescent signals from blots and gels. The center also houses a conventional Biotex luminescence plate reader and a Biotex fluorescent plate reader. The suite also has a dark room. The space occupied by the dark room is ideal for placement of a standard fluorescent or a confocal microscope. Our department is also equipped with a full range of teaching and research microscopes located throughout the laboratories. Visualization technology includes:

• Nikon SMZ800 stereoscope with CoolSNAP EZ monochrome camera (purchased April 2010)
• UVP Autochemi Imaging Station (electronic capture of UV fluorescent and chemi- luminescence) (< 4 years old)
• Biotex Exl 808 plate reader (purchased July 2007)
• Biotex FLX fluorescent plate reader (purchased July 2007)
• Dell computer with Gen 5 software for advanced plate reader capture & data analysis (July 2007)
• Olympus SZX61 dissecting microscope and Leica digital camera (purchased April 2008)
• New student microscopes acquisition in progress (2008)

Tissue Culture Facility

A 200 sq foot room on the third floor of Marram Hall contains all the necessary equipment to perform mammalian tissue culture.

• Baker Company Biogard Model B40-112 Biological Safety cabinet (Class A1)
• Two Sanyo single chamber CO2 tissue culture incubators (stackable) (< 4 years old)
• Nikon Eclipse TS 100 inverted phase contrast microscope with fluorescence (< 4 years old)
• Photometrics CoolSNAPEZ Monochrome microscope camera (purchased May 2008)
• Dell computer w/ NIS-Elements: Basic Research image acquisition & analysis software(purchased May 2008)
• Standing water bath
• Pipet Aid
• Oil suction pump (central vacuum is not available)
• Two Taylor Wharton 35 HC liquid N2 dewers

Other Biology Facilities

An area on the north end of Marram 3rd floor formerly housed an animal facility. The area consists of a suite of four rooms consisting of a total space of 642 sq ft currently used for storage, but could easily be re-converted back to an animal facility. The smaller three rooms could be used as animal housing areas. The larger L-shaped room could be transformed into a small surgical area, storage area for food, bedding and extra cages, a dirty area/cleaning station, and an atrium entry.  Also, the equipment below is used for teaching, but are available for research as well.

• micropipettes
• analytical and mass balances
• light microscopes
• vortices, stir plates, misc. equipment
• Garmin Colorado Series 400t GPS navigation unit

Tropical Greenhouse

A large greenhouse is found at the south end of the third floor of Marram Hall and is 36’ x 26’ with ceiling from 28’(east side) sloping up to 35’ (west side) tall. The greenhouse contains a tropical plant collection including over 300 Anthurium and Syngonium species as well as many other plants. Each year a number of specimens are added from an extensive Missouri Botanical Garden collection. The living collections are used for both teaching and research. Student use of the plants for genetic and systematic study is strongly encouraged.

On-Campus Prairie and Wetland Restoration Site

An 11 acre (5 ha) ecosystem restoration is adjacent to the north side of campus along the southern edge of a wetland of the Little Calumet River. Starting from only about 10 plant species after an Army Corps of Engineers flood berm construction, the current plant species richness is high at about 150 species with about 100 native species. The site is maintained by numerous native plantings, diligent attention by the IU Northwest community as well as controlled burns typically conducted in the spring.

Other IU Northwest Campus Facilities Available to Biology Students and Faculty

Shared equipment to be purchased with a Northwest Center of Research Excellence Earmark grant:

• LC Mass spectrophotometer
• IVIS in vivo imaging system
• Real time PCR thermocycler
• -90C freezer
• Refrigerated incubator-shaker
• BioTek Elx 808 Absorbance microplate reader
• Nanodrop spectrophotometer
• Cell lysis, nucleic acid purification system
• Animal perfusion exhaust system