Facilities
and Major Equipment
Departmental
Core Facilities
Confocal Microscopy
The
confocal microscopy suite contains a Zeiss LSM 510 Meta laser
confocal microscope, a Biorad MRC 600 laser confocal microscope,
and a Noran Odyssey laser confocal microscope. Also available
within the Department is a high-speed Nipkow dual spinning disk
confocal laser imaging system, consisting of a QLC100 high-speed
confocal scan head, XR-Mega-10 ICCD camera and appropriate lasers
for calcium imaging (See also: Calcium Imaging)
Transmission Electron Microscopy
This
facility houses a Phillips CM10 transmission electron microscope
that is equipped with an analog negative (5x7) photosystem as
well as a Gatan digital imaging system (Bioscan 792). The adjacent
rooms contain a fully equipped darkroom and two Leica (Ultracut
S) microtomes with Reichert FCS cryoattachment for cutting frozen
sections for electron microscopy. Other microtomes are available
for tissue preparation and light microscopy.
Molecular Core
This
facility is fully staffed and equipped with shared instrumentation
that includes real-time quantitative PCR (Applied Biosystems ABI
7300 sequence detector), gel imaging apparatus (BioRad Molecular
Dynamics PhosphorImager), and four 96-well PCR thermal cyclers,
Additional instrumentation includes gel electrophoresis, rocking
incubator, hybridization chamber, electroporation units, centrifuges,
refrigerators and freezers, and software for sequence analysis.
Tissue Culture
The
fully staffed Tissue Culture Facility contains primary and cell-line-dedicated
incubators, high- and low-speed centrifuges, dissecting microscopes,
biosafety level II hoods and safety cabinets, fluorescent inverted
microscope with Q-imaging, and cryogenic (liquid nitrogen) storage.
Histology and Immunocytochemistry
A
workstation for paraffin wax-embedding, sectioning (rotary microtome),
collection of sections, and staining, as well as a Nikon microscope
equipped with a z-axis encoder and drawing tube is available for
histology needs as well as design-based stereological quantification
of particles in tissue sections. In addition, a motorized cryostat
(Leica CM3050) and vibratome is available along with upright and
inverted fluorescent microscopes with digital imaging systems.
Wet laboratory with dissecting microscopes for tissue processing
is also available.
Calcium Imaging
A
workstation to visualize organelle traffic and rapid calcium waves
in cells, using a high-speed Nipkow dual spinning disk confocal
laser imaging system, consisting of a QLC100 high-speed confocal
scan head, XR-Mega-10 ICCD camera, filter sets, fiber optics,
4-channel acousto-optical tunable filter (AOTF), with the scan
head mounted on a Nikon E600 FN upright Physioscope with fluorescent
water immersion lenses.
HPLC
An
HPLC system with an electrochemical detector (Agilent Technologies)
is available, as well as an HPLC system with a fluorescence detector
(Agilent Technologies).
Cell Sorting
This
Facility houses a 4-color Beckman Coulter XL/MCL analytical flow
cytometer with a single 488 Ar laser, configured to measure emissions
at 525 (fluorescein, AF488, CFSE, etc.), 575 (R-phycoerythrin),
670 (7-AAD, PerCP and PE tandems such as PE-cyanine 5) and >740nm
(PE-cyanine 7 tandems). Propidium iodide (PI) can be effectively
measured at 575, 670 or at longer wavelengths. Excellent analytical
software (FlowJo, Tree Star, Ashland, OR) is available for use.
Computer Support
A
full-time computer expert is available for all computer and software
needs in the Department.
School
of Medicine Core Facilities
Confocal Microscopy
The
facility provides training and scoping time on the FV1000 Olympus
laser scanning confocal microscope. This facility also houses
two Olympus FV300s workstations for two-photon microscopy on upright
and inverted microscopes.
Electronics/Technical Support
The
School of Medicine provides a full-time staffed electronics and
instrument repair facility, located within the Department of Physiology.
Transgenic Facility
The
Core contains a gene targeting center that provides a complete
ES cell culture and targeting service, a microinjection center,
for both fertilized eggs and blastocyst injections, and an animal
service that provides animals and embryos for the center, performs
embryo transfers, and has responsibility for managing transgenic
founders and colonies. Additional services include genotyping,
karyotyping, breeding mice and cryopreservation services, assay
ES cell clones, target construction. For details, see www.unr.edu/med/dept/pharmacology/transgenic/
University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Core Facilities
Genomics Center: http://www.ag.unr.edu/genomics/
Proteomics Center: http://www.unr.edu/inbre/cores/proteomics/default.asp