Microbiology

We have three NuAire Class II Type A2 biological safety cabinets in the core.  One is designated for eukaryotic cell culturing and we have 2 designated for microbial work.

The Biotech Innovation Core houses two anaerobic chambers.  Multiple chamber accessories are available to ensure a tightly controlled anaerobic environment, including palladium catalysts, gas infuser, anaerobic monitor, and dehumidifier.  With a programmable incubator located inside the chamber, your entire culture process can remain strictly anaerobic. The incubator capacity is 350 standard petri plates.

The Prospector system (Isolation Bio) is a high-throughput method for bacterial isolation and cultivation from environmental samples.  This innovative technology segregates individual microbes into over 6000 nanoscale cultivation chambers, allowing for the concurrent growth of thousands of micro-colonies on a chip the size of a microscope slide. It then automatically selects and transfers single isolates into a standard multi-well plate.

The Applikon Biotechnology ez-Control monitors and manages the pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen and agitation levels of your fermentation reactions.  We have 3L, 7L and 10L reaction vessels available.

The Cytation 5 is a highly versatile plate reader and Imaging system built into one compact unit. The plate reader is capable of handling any format micro well plate (1-384+ wells). Absorbance, Fluorescence and Chemiluminescence can be measured at virtually any wavelength (no filters or filter cubes used). Additionally, specialized features allow for advanced options such as incubating at a set temperature, plate agitation, kinetic reading and well monitoring to list a few.

However, the most impressive part….you can take images during any of these processes. This reader is equipped with brightfield, phase contrast and fluorescence imaging capabilities and analysis that can all be automated to fit your assay. This unit can also image standard slides and serve as a slide scanner to archive and share data.

The Biotek LogPhase 600 plate reader is specifically designed for performing bacterial growth curves at a fixed wavelength of 600nm.  Capable of holding up to 4-96 well plates per run, this reader has temperature control and sample shaking that are optimized for optimum bacterial growth.  A customized, app-based user interface simplifies setup and analysis into just a few easy steps.

The Olympus DP74 camera mounted on an Olympus BX53 microscope base provides a great resource for brightfield and fluorescence imaging.  Combined with available DIC optics, this upright microscope is very versatile.

The imaging capabilities of the Cytation 5 utilize an inverted microscope that is designed to image directly from microwell plates, slides and petri plates.  Featuring fluorescence, bright field and phase contrast options and a wide array of objectives and automation, this plate reader based imager provides a great platform for high throughput imaging.

The Steris Lab250 autoclave may be used for sterilization or decontamination of culture media, lab supplies, or culture waste.  Cycle options include liquid, gravity, or prevacuum. Many pre-programed cycles are available, or can be customized as needed.

A great option for heat and/or moisture sensitive samples, the X-ray irradiator can be used to sterilize samples.  Also works great to inactive cells and microbes without destroying the cells or altering their original composition.