The Animal Bioscience Centre - Facilities
General:
ThermoFisher DSQ II GC-Mass Spectrometer with TriPlus autosampler for liquids, headspace gases and SPME, DYNEX DSX 4 Plate ELISA Processor used for measuring IgG, Cortisol, DHEA, Cortisol, antibody titers (for BRSV, IBR, and PI-3 levels) in plasma and serum samples, two Class 2 Laminar flow biocontainment units, Two spectrophotometers, Coulter counter, Fujitsu Siemens Flow Cytometer, Shimadzu HPLC and GC, Olympus AU 400 Clinical Analyser, Ace Alera Clinical analyser, ADVIA 2120 haematology analyser. Computer operated 96 vis and fluorescent microtitre plate readers, automated microplate washers.
Super-speed and refrigerated centrifuges, two 4°C walk-in cold rooms, 3 alarmed -80 °C freezers, 3 alarmed -20°C freezers, and two 5% CO2 incubators. Laboratories, equipment and expertise for full chemical analysis of feedstuffs, rumen contents, gasses, etc. Laboratory for in vitro gas production technique and artificial rumen fermenters. Culture rooms and microscope.
Molecular laboratory:
Genome Analyser (Next Generation Sequencer) from Illumina (joint ownership with the Conway Institute, UCD, and located in the Conway Institute). Facilities for RNA and DNA extraction, 4 PCR instruments, 2 ABI FAST real time PCR machines, Agilent Bioanalyser for RNA quality control, Nanodrop spectrophotometer, heating blocks, Bio-Rad FX pharos molecular imager for fluorescent gels and DIGE as well as phosphor imaging of radioactive images. Alpha Innotech CCD imager for visible and chemiluminescence imaging. Tecan 400 hybridisation station and variety of rotisserie style hybridisation stations and associated equipment. Gel electrophoresis equipment. Three -80°C alarmed freezers, with ring back system, -20°C freezers, refrigerated micro-centrifuges, bench top autoclaves, laminar flow and fume hoods.
Proteomics Laboratory:
One dimensional and large scale 2-D electrophoresis systems including Agilent OFFGEL system and Multiphor for 1st dimension IPG. Progenesis Same spots 2D image analysis system together with Quantity One and AlphaEase software. Immunoblotting including semi-dry and wet transfer equipment. Nano-LC system for 2-D LC with autosampler and chilled MALDI spotting plate. FPLC system and general chromatography and protein fractionation equipment
Microbial laboratory:
Bio-Rad Fast prep instrument for microbial DNA extraction Microscopy, humidified CO2 culturing and sterilisation facilities, orbital floor standing incubator. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis system (Bio-Rad) for molecular profiling
Bioinformatics:
Linux Bioinformatics server with 16Gb RAM running R and Bioconductor and a variety of bioinformatic tools. Windows based PC running SPLUS and SAS together with Pathway analysis tools. Developing web based bioinformatic tools for distributed computing.
