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Facilities

The Department of Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry occupies the sixth floor of the Medical Science Building of the Albert B. Chandler Medical Center.

In addition, several Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry faculty members have laboratories in the D.E. Combs Research Facility of the Markey Cancer Center adjacent to the Medical Science Building. A number of our faculty hold joint appointments with other departments and Centers of the College of Medicine, including the Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Center, Lucille P. Markey Cancer Center, Department of Pathology, Department of Medicine, and the Sanders-Brown Research Center on Aging and Gerontology.

Modern, well-equipped laboratories and shared equipment facilities are available for the research studies of all graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty of the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry. Individual laboratories contain up-to-date research equipment, both general and specialized, for the study of a wide range of biochemical, structural, and molecular biological research problems. The department houses several warm and cold rooms, darkrooms, and computer facilities with data analysis and graphics capabilities available for use by all students. Also available in the department are facilities for cell and tissue culture, microscopy with a variety of optical systems (phase contrast, differential interference contrast, and fluorescence), equipment for protein purification, such as high performance and fast protein liquid chromatography for separation of many classes of biomolecules. Common equipment includes UV, visible, and fluorescence spectrophotometers, luminometers, liquid scintillation counters, superspeed centrifuges, preparative and analytical ultracentrifuges, and ultra-low temperature freezers.

The Macromolecular Structure Analysis Facility (MASF) run by the department has numerous capabilities, including peptide sequencing, amino acid analysis, DNA sequencing, and oligonucleotide synthesis. The department has recently expanded its structural biology capabilities with the addition of "state of the art" NMR spectroscopy, CD spectroscopy, X-ray crystallographic and computational facilities. Students also have access to facilities located outside the department, including a transgenic mouse facility, transmission and scanning electron microscopes, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging spectrometer, solid and solution multinuclear NMR spectrometers, EPR spectrometers, and fluorescence-activated cell sorters. Thus, graduate students in the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry have access to all of the equipment and facilities necessary for conducting state of the art biochemical and molecular biological research.