Facilities
DCU National Core Drug Screening Facility
DCU – Facilities
DCU – The National Core Drug Screening Facility has been built and commissioned. The facility houses state of the art microscopes and a selection of equipment including:
- Automated patch-clamp system – an advanced method for the high throughput screening of potential therapeutics based on electrophysiological characteristisation of drug-target interactions. This system increases throughput by approximately 100-fold over conventional methodologies.
- Flow cytometer/cell sorter – this instrument has cell-sorting capacity which is useful for the identification of surface markers on specific cell types and quantification of these in disease states. It is also useful for sorting of cells into purified populations ex vivo for assessment of successful targeting.
- Two-photon laser scanning microscope with patch-clamp system – Used to image thick and highly scattering samples (e.g. slices thicker than 100μm). It provides optical sectioning similar to a confocal laser scanning microscope but dramatically reduces the effects of light scattering. Together with an integrated patch-clamp rig this is a powerful tool to study cell communication.
- Confocal laser scanning microscope – Used for obtaining high-resolution optical images. The series of optical images can then be collated to form 3D representations of the structures being analysed.
- Beckman Optima Ultracentrifuge L90K – required for separating/preparing biological samples according to size
- Ultrapure water purification system – Used for critical applications such as HPLC, mass spectrophotometer and electrophoresis
- Other items of equipment such as Mass Spectrophotometer and Advanced Imaging System are currently under tender.
DCU – GMP Facility – This facility will be the first of its kind in Ireland and will be used for large scale isolation of Bio-therapeutics. The goal of this facility is to aid in the development of commercially viable “Made in Ireland” therapeutics.
DCU – ICNT – Renovations to the International Centre for Neurotherapeutics (ICNT) are complete. A range of equipment has been purchased to add capacity to this centre including:
- High-throughput piezostepper microperfusion system – for enhancing throughput and reproducibility of therapeutic application during electrophysiological recording from neurons
- Neuronal slice patch-clamp apparatus – this equipment uses electrical recording in living brain slices to directly assess the effects of therapeutics on neuronal circuitry
- Cryostat – used to enable cold slicing of tissue for immuno-staining
- Heraeus Safety Cabinets – Used to prevent contaminants from entering or leaving the work area.
- Galaxy Incubator CO2 – Used in cell culture.
- Spectrophotometer – UV / Vis spectrophotometer used for the quantification of samples
DCU – Diffractometer Suite – Plans have been finalised to refurbish an additional laboratory space to house an X-ray crystal diffractometer purchased under PRTLI 4. Construction of the facility is due to commence on May 18th, 2009 with a projected completion date in the Autumn of 2009.
- Single Crystal Diffractometer – acquires crystallographic data from single crystal
DCU – Tissue Culture – Plans have been finalised for the construction of a new tissue culture facility and bio-storage bank. Construction of the facility has commenced with a projected completion date in the Autumn of 2009. To date the following pieces of equipment have been purchased for the facility:
- Epiflourescence Microscope – The inverted model have their objective facing up, and are used for viewing fluorescing specimens in the bottom of a petri dish, such as tissue culture samples in cellular biology.
- Liquid nitrogen ultra low freezer – ultra low freezer (less than -152oC degrees) for the long-term storage of biological material/cell banks with Liquid N2 back up
- High-end cell transfection/electroporation unit – for transforming cells
- Cone and Plate Viscometer/Biorheometer – instruments required for measuring the flow/viscosity of liquids
- Various Biomechanical Cell Culture Apparatus – required for growing/harvesting cell cultures
DCU – Bioresource Unit – The design of the new Bio-Resource Unit is nearly complete having received ample input from the BRU user group. Construction of the facility has commenced and is projected to be completed in January, 2010. The new facility will greatly increase the capacity and quality of housing and procedure rooms at DCU. Tenders have been posted for equipment required. The improvements will allow for the extension of research at DCU into transgenic lines.
- Isothermal Calorimetry – study binding energetics an dilution energies
- Thermogravimetric Analyser – for analysis of pharmaceutical hydrates and solvates (also ABCRF)
- Circular Dichroism spectrometer Thermogravimetric Analyser
UCC – ABCRF 600MHz NMR spectrometerX-Ray Diffractometer
UCD – CSCB High-throughput Agilent HPLC
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