Facilities

The Department of Microbiology and Immunology is located in the Medical Sciences Building of the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center on the main University campus. While most of the faculty are located on the third and fourth floor of the Medical Sciences Building, other faculty members have laboratories adjacent to the Medical Center in the Sanders Brown Center on Aging, and the Combs Cancer Research Building.

The Department has well equipped laboratories and a diversity of modern research equipment and instrumentation which are capable of supporting all of the current research programs. A Flow Analysis and Cell sorting Facility is operated by the Department as a core laboratory and houses a MoFlo and FACSCalibur with computerized data acquisition and analysis. This laboratory is currently equipped for analysis of cell cycle, calcium flux, cellular DNA and RNA content, single-, dual-, and multi-parameter immunofluorescence intensity or light scatter. The Department also oversees the DNA sequence analysis facility, SCID mouse facility, and transgenic mouse core facility. The Department has direct access to a macromolecular structure facility equipped for amino acid analysis, peptide sequencing, automated DNA sequencing, peptide and oligonucleotide synthesis. GC mass spectrometers, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, electron microscopy, confocal microscopy and biostatistical support services are also available as core resources.

Common equipment available to all researchers includes analytic and preparative ultracentrifuges, quantitative PCR, liquid scintillation counters, gamma spectrometers, large scale preparative cell and tissue culture facilities and protein purification facilities. The Department has a137Cs irradiator for small animals and cells, equipment for elutriation centrifugation, a image analysis and a Molecular Dynamics Phosphoimager. The Department also contains cold rooms, a dark room, ultra-low and low temperature freezers, fluorescent microscopes, equipped for image analysis, recording spectrophotomers, electrophoresis equipment for protein, RNA, and DNA analysis as well as DNA sequencing and high pressure liquid chromatographs. Also available are mechanical and electronic shops for the repair and construction of instruments; graphic services for artwork and preparation of slides and posters; and central animal facilities for maintenance and procurement of research animals. A supercomputer and numerous minicomputers with graphics capability are available for student use. Present throughout the Department are personal computers which may be used by students, as well as computers associated with much of the instrumentation.

Students routinely carry out projects which entail monoclonal antibody production, DNA transfection, flow cytometry, somatic cell genetics, gene cloning, DNA sequencing, analysis of oncogenes, cell cycle analysis, and gene transfere.