The Tissue Culture Laboratory

The TCL has state-of-the-art equipment including, but not limited to:

Electroporator/Electrofusion Unit: A BTX ECM 2001 Electroporator/electrofusion unit is available for transformations, transfections and cell fusions.
 
Luminometer: A Lumicount microplate reader for assay of Luciferase reporter genes, microorganism detection, particle detection, cell proliferation, oxidant/antioxidant studies and other types of assays utilizing a luminescent reagent.

LumiCountTM  Luminometer, Photograph Courtesy of PerkinElmer Life Sciences


Fluorescence Microplate Reader: Bio-Tek FL600 with KC4 version 2.5 software for qualitative, quantitative and kinetic assays involving a fluorescent indicator, including toxicological and endotoxin assays. The FL600 features both top and bottom epifluorescence for maximum sensitivity; top epifluorescence is ideal for homogeneous solutions while bottom epifluorescence is ideal for cellular assays.

Bio-Tek FL600 Fluorescence Microplate Reader, Photograph courtesy of Bio-Tek Instruments

Fluorescent Inverted Microscope with camera attachment: A Nikon TE 200 inverted microscope with fluorescent illumination and dedicated Nikon N6006 camera and 3CCD Video Camera with Flashpoint Digital Conversion/Frame Grabber software for photography and fluorescent imaging of cell cultures. The inverted format allows direct staining and photography of cells on a tissue culture plate without growing cells on coverslips.  10X, 20X, and 40X objectives are available and provide excellent publication quality photographs for studies of cell organelles and inter- or extra-celluar fluorescence staining.
For examples of images created using this microscope click here

Tri-gas Incubator for high or low O2 culture studies: A trigas CO2 incubator for studies of cells in culture under nonambiant O2 concentrations. Studies of cells in culture under conditions of 1% to 90% O2 may be performed.
 
FACScan with Tricolor capability: A Becton Dickinson Fluorescence Activated Cell Scanner (FACScan) with the capability to detect three different fluorescent probes simultaneously. This allows the study of up to three different cell surfaces or intracellular markers. After labeling, differential counts on 10,000 cells can be obtained in 30 seconds or less.

The TCL also has available:  liquid nitrogen storage vessels, an osmometer, an ultrapure water system, an autoclave, numerous CO2 incubators and biological safety cabinets, an ultra-low freezer and several other instruments necessary for tissue culture work.  See the Complete Equipment List for details.

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Last Update 8/22/06