F A C I L I T I E S

CONFOCAL MICROSCOPY AND IMAGING
A Zeiss LSM 5 Pascal Confocal Microscope and Image Analysis facility is located in Lyman Hall 404. Themicroscope is equipped with multiple laser lines permitting scanning at 458/488/514 nm (Argon laser) and 543/633 nm (HeNe laser). Software and filters permit time-lapse, multi-channel recording of reflection, fluorescence and transmission images. Objectives include 10X, 20X, 40X and 63X to permit imaging over a wide range of magnifications. Inquiries regarding use of the facility should be directed to Dr. Melissa Pepling (BRL, 443-4541).

ELECTRON MICROSCOPY
The N.C. Brown Center for Ultrastructure Studies, located in Walters Hall, is a teaching, research, and service facility. It is equipped to provide students, faculty, and research staff with virtually every type of modern microscopy, including light microscopy, video microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Although this center is a SUNY - Environmental Sciences and Forestry facility, all resources are available for use by SU Biology faculty and students.

Among the major items of equipment in the Center are the following: a JEOL 2000EX 200-KV transmission electron microscope; two ETEC Autoscan scanning electron microscopes with energy dispersive x-ray analyzers, wavelength x-ray analyzer, LeMont Scientific Image Analysis System, and microstages for mechanical testing of specimens within the scanning microscope chamber; high vacuum evaporators, microtomes, ultramicrotomes, and an array of specialized light microscopes, including a high resolution enhanced contrast video microscopy system. Resources include specimen preparation rooms, photographic darkrooms, three electron microscope laboratories, and other supporting facilities.

MICROARRAYS
The Department of Biology has a microarray facility that provides our faculty and students with the ability to design, print and analyze microarray assays that can be custom-fit to their needs. Specifically, we have an OmniGrid 100 (Gene Machine) for printing microarray slides and a 4100A Array Scanner (Axon) for scanning the slides. These facilities are located on the 6th floor of the Biological Research Laboratories. Please contact Professor Ramesh Raina in BRL 601A (443-4546) with specific questions about this facility. Microarray data are extracted using the GenePix Pro 4.1 software that comes with the scanner. For downstream data analysis, at present we use the software available on the web (from TIGR site) but we will buy a commercial software package (such as GeneSpring by Silicon Genetics) for this application.

Facilities for the preparation of biological samples and their analysis by microarrays are also available in the SUNYMAC core facility on the adjacent SUNY Upstate Medical University campus. This full service microarray processing core provides researchers the ability to analyze samples using Affymetrix GeneChip© technology, as well as other microarray platforms. The facility also houses precision instrumentation for isolation of specific tissue or cell type samples (Leica Laser Microdissection Apparatus) and their quantification (Agilent Technologies Bioanalyzer). Bioinformatics software and analysis facilities arealso available, including MicroArray Analysis Suite, MicroDb and Data Mining Tools for analysis of Affymetrix GeneChips¨, and GeneSpring by Silicon Genetics, and GeneTraffic by Iobion.

DNA SEQUENCING AND SNP ANALYSIS
The Department has recently acquired a CEQ8000 Genetic Analysis System from Beckman Coulter that performs DNA sequencing and SNP analysis. This facility is located on the 6th floor of the Biological Research Laboratories. Contact Professor Ramesh Raina in BRL 601A (443-4546) with specific questions.

LIQUID HANDLING ROBOT
The Department has recently acquired a Biomek 2000 liquid handling system with integrated Spectramax Plus plate reader from Beckman Coulter. This system allows automation of several liquid handling applications such as plasmid isolations in 96-well plates, normalization of nucleic acids in 96-well plates, preparation of PCR reactions in 96-well plates, liquid transfers from 96-well plates into 384-well plates, preparation of replica plates, transfer of nucleic acids from 96-well plates onto the nitrocellulose membranes, etc. Contact Professor Ramesh Raina in BRL 601A (443-4546) with specific questions.

GREENHOUSE AND GROWTH-CHAMBER FACILITIES
The SU Biology Department has separate greenhouse and growth-chamber facilities located in the Biological Research Lab (BRL) building. The 1200-ft2 greenhouse is temperature controlled, and has automated supplemental lighting and watering systems. The growth-chamber facility has seven controlled-environment chambers of various sizes, including four late-model Conviron E-15 chambers. Additional controlled-environment growth rooms are located in Lyman Hall.

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Syracuse University has a state of the art Geographic Information Systems (GIS) lab that is available for use by all SU faculty and students. The facility features ESRI software (ARC VIEW and ARC GIS) as well as other compatible software for spatial analysis and imaging, digitizers, scanners, and large plotters. ESRI software is also available for use by Biology faculty and students on PC.

FIELDWORK
There are numerous opportunities to conduct fieldwork off campus and in remote locations. For example, graduate students currently conduct research in Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, mainland Mexico, Baja California, India, Kenya and Tanzania.