The Institute is housed in an innovative biomedical research space designed to maximize scientific interaction among diverse researchers. The facility includes new lab and meeting space added during a $4.3 million expansion project that concluded in 2011. The Institute's campus is fully equipped and staffed for in vivo and in vitro expirements, histology, cell culture, and molecular biology. The open floor plan encourages collaboration among teams and allows researchers to share major equipment.
Tissue Culture Core
The Tissue Culture Core, located in the PVLSI, supports research work with primary tissues by providing laboratory space, equipment and supplies. There are two BSL2 rooms available for laboratory work, biosafety cabinets, CO2 incubator space for cell culture conditions, centrifuges, basic microscopes, and an additional incubator for mixed gases for special conditions.
Microscopy Core
The Microscopy Core offers support for laser capture microdissection, allowing selection of specific cells or lesions within histological sections. Live imaging confocal microscopes are equipped with defined atmosphere to maintain physiologic levels of oxygen. Perfect Focus instrumentation allows continuous imaging for more than 24 h. The microscopes are equipped to capture images from fluorescent as well as transmitted light.
Molecular Biology Core
BSL2 facilities for containment of biohazards, Agilent Bioanalyzer, Nanodrop spectrophotometer, 2 Luminometers, Amaxa Nucleofector, 2 Stratagene MX3005 real time qPCR machines, 5 BioRad C-1000 thermocyclers, PTC-100 thermocycler, Microtiter plate reader (UV/Vis/Fluorescent), Gel quantification system, ViCell live/dead cell counter (Coulter).
In Vivo Imaging and Metabolism Core
Maestro In Vivo Imaging station (CRI) for fluorescence detection, Echo-MRI-100 qNMR instrument for body composition in rodents, Laser Doppler for analysis of blood flow, SeaHorse respirometer allowing real-time measurement of metabolic flux.
Histology Core
2 DAKO auto-immunostainers, conventional robotic histology system, Leica autostainer, Leica autoprocessor, Leica CM3050 cryostat.
Tissue Repository
Space is available for tissue repositories. These include ultralow-temperature freezers and liquid nitrogen tanks to preserve samples of tissue or blood. These are fully monitored with remote alarms to ensure integrity of samples.