Biology and Microbiology Facilities
The Department of Biology and Microbiology and its faculty members are located in four buildings, Edgar S. McFadden Biostress Lab, Alfred Dairy Science Hall, Berg Agricultural Hall and the Olson Research Wing on the SDSU campus. In addition to departmental shared equipment, researchers have access to the Genomic Core Facility, Genomics Sequencing Facility and Campus Mass Spectrometry Facility.
Shared equipment within the department includes lyophilizers, a Speed-Vac, high-speed centrifuges, ultralow freezers, autoclaves, fermentors, ice machine, incubators, plant growth facilities, greenhouses, water purification units, high-performance liquid chromatography units, gas chromatography mass spectrometer for volatiles, spectrophotometers, temperature-controlled shakers and access to a flow cytometer (BD FACSCalibur) in the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences.
SDSU Functional Genomics Core Facility
The functional genomics core facility is a 24/7 campus facility located in the lower level of the Northern Plains Biostress Building, and managed by the Department of Biology and Microbiology. It houses a wide range of instruments and equipment to support research efforts in the areas of genomics and molecular biology.
- Microscopy needs are supported by a laser scanning confocal microscope (Olympus Fluoview 1200 with four lasers), upright microscope for epifluorescence and differential interference contrast (Olympus AX70), inverted microscope for epifluorescence and differential interference contrast (Olympus IX70), epifluorescent stereo microscope (Olympus SZX16), a cryostat cryotome (Leica 1450UV with Cryo-Jane feature) and image analysis software.
- Gel imaging needs are supported by a gel imaging system (BioRad ChemiDoc XRS), and infrared gel imaging system (LI-COR Odyssey Premium), Quantity One and PD Quest gel analysis software.
- DNA, RNA and protein work is supported by a NanoDrop (ND-1000) spectrophotometer, agilent bioanalyzer, ABI 7900HT High-Throughput Real-Time Thermocycler, with 96 and 384 well blocks, two real-time thermocyclers (Stratagene Mx3000P), four ABI thermocyclers, two ABI veriti gradient thermocyclers, microarray scanner (GenePix 4000B), a laser microdissection system (Zeiss/PALM MicroBeam), a multidetection fluorescence microplate reader (BioTek Synergy 2), Beckman DTX880 plate reader.
- Separation needs are supported an ultracentrifuge (Beckman OPTIMA 130K) with fixed angle and swinging bucket rotors, Beckman Allegra X-15R Refrigerated Tabletop Centrifuge and a 2D gel system (BioRad PROTEAN IEF).
- Gene transformation is supported by an electroporation system, (BioRad Gene Pulser Xcell) and biolistic transformation system for plant tissue (BioRad PDS-1000 He).
