Distributed throughout the Center are dozens of isolated tissue baths for the measurement of uterine, cardiac, and vascular smooth muscle contractility. Facilities are also available for the recording of contractile responses to either direct electrical stimulation, or via selective electrical stimulation of endogenous nerves. Also available is a Jasco fluorometer for simultaneous measurement of intracellular ion concentrations and contractile activity. Equipment for single cell calcium imaging and membrane potential measurement is also available. For in vivo experiments, a great assortment of support equipment is available, including all resources necessary for sterile chronic surgery, gas anesthesia, blood gas support, measurement of blood pressures and flows, etc. Most of the Center's surgical resources are managed and maintained within separate rooms located within the Vivarium.
The Center for Perinatal Biology maintains two separate rooms dedicated to the application of methods of molecular biology for the study of research problems related to perinatal biology. The protein facility includes all apparatus necessary for the preparation and running of SDS-PAGE gels, together with an advanced filmless photon-capture system for scanning gels and membranes to determine optical densities. This facility also includes state-of-the-art equipment for aqueous phase isoelectric focusing and continuous elution SDS-PAGE chromatography. The RNA facility is contained within a separate room designed to minimize exposure to RNAases. This room contains all the necessary refrigerated centrifuges, spectrophotometers, water baths, agarose gel systems, and other equipment necessary for the isolation and analysis of mRNAs of interest.
In addition to the resources maintained in the protein facility, the Center also maintains a separate centrifugation facility that includes a variety of full size centrifuges including a Beckman XL70 ultracentrifuge, Sorval RC3B, and RC24 high speed centrifuges, as well as a IEC DRP-6000 refrigerated low speed centrifuge. For convenience, this facility also includes two full-size -70 o C ultrafreezers for sample storage. For isotope work, the Center also maintains a separate scintillation facility that includes Packard Tricard 1900CA and 2200 CA beta-counters, as well as a Packard Cobra II and a Packard 5650 for gamma counting. A broad variety of HPLC units with autoinjectors and a variety of detection systems are also maintained throughout the Center for isolation and quantitation of many different compounds.
The imaging core facility is distributed over several laboratories within the Center and is managed by Drs. Michael Kirby and Steven Yellon. Capabilities for brightfield and fluorescence microscopy are provided by both upright and inverted scopes from Nikon, Olympus, and Zeiss. A separate image analysis system incorporating high quality objectives with an ultra-sensitive black and white CCD camera and Image-Pro software is available for high resolution quantitation of optical density in autoradiographic films. Accessory lenses, objectives, barrier and emission filters, as well as photographic capabilities are also available. Access to a confocal microscope and laser scanning cytometer for fluorescence microscopy in the nearby Cancer Institute provides important additional tools for sophisticated imaging of multiple labeling techniques and cell cycle analyses.
Each office and laboratory of the Center is equipped with network connections to the campus network. The campus is served by two T1 lines, so high-speed access to the Internet is available from all laboratories and offices. The School of Medicine maintains a POP3 email server, which is password accessible from any Internet connection, anywhere. Members of the Center can also subscribe to an independent Internet service provider at an institutionally negotiated discount rate. Help with network and desktop computer problems is available from the office of information systems within the School of Medicine, which also provides both software and hardware at institutionally negotiated discount rates. Throughout the campus, there are multiple other network servers that offer a wide variety of services including access to full-text journals, FTP servers, etc. The Loma Linda University campus also supports and maintains the Blackboard multimedia software system for development of Internet-based presentations and distance learning web pages.
The Center employs two senior administrative assistants who together are in charge of grants accounting, personnel records, facilities use, interactions with intramural offices in the University, and scheduling. These employees also serve the needs of all member faculty for correspondence, library/reference resources, and general office work. The main office includes a 24-hour dedicated fax machine as well as a high-throughput sorting copier. A state-of-the-art voicemail system is also available to each member of the Center.
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Last Revised: Tue, Mar 04, 2008