Space and Equipment
Future
Phase: Planning and Development of a Complete CIMERA in the
Proposed Science II Building.
Objectives.
The next phase develops a proposal for a fully integrated research
environment for all CIMERA faculty members in Science II. The
achievement of this objective will require the combining of
space assignments between the Departments of Biological Sciences
and Chemistry within the College of Natural Sciences and
Mathematics. A complete CIMERA would require all members of the
group to have research laboratory space on a single floor, along
with the central equipment facilities, offices and directly
related teaching laboratories.
Figure 3. Proposed CIMERA facilities in Science II
The Central Facility. The design for the central facility combines the research and teaching activities of the CIMERA faculty members to take advantage of the high overlap in the use of equipment and resources. Currently the members of CIMERA teach directly related course in Molecular Biology, Protein Biochemistry, Cell Biology, Genomics and Proteomics, as well as advanced courses in Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology. The preliminary design for the new facility includes two multi-course teaching laboratories rooms on either side of a molecular instrumentation laboratory. With efficient scheduling, these laboratories can accommodate Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Cell Biology laboratory instruction and instrumentation. Current equipment would include the 310 DNA Analyzer, two chemi-luminescent detection and gel-documentation systems, three thermocyclers, power supplies and accessories for nucleic acid analysis, multiple level II biosafety hoods, water-jacketed CO2 incubators, inverted microscopes. The instrumentation and preparation areas behind these laboratories would contain current and additional equipment, such as pre-PCR preparation, the Sorvall centrifuge, the Beckman ultracentrifuge, –80oC and –20oC freezers and refrigerators.
These rooms are separated by a corridor from a eukaryotic cell culture facility and a prokaryotic cell and virus culture facility on either side of an open laboratory for student research. These laboratories can accommodate Bacteriology, Immunology and Virology instruction and instrumentation. Current equipment would include a dedicated virus culture level II biosafety hood, 37oC shaking and culture incubators, bacterial cell culture and plasmid preparation. The instrumentation and preparation areas behind these laboratories would contain current and additional equipment, such as glass washer and autoclave for the facility.