The Department of Biological Sciences is located in the OE building
on the University Park campus. The building has common areas designated
for: electron microscopy (SEM/TEM); cell culture; protein / DNAsequencing
/ synthesis; image analysis; separate animal care/aquaria facilities;
radioisotopes; and darkrooms. Additional research instrumentation
and equipment includes: ultracentrifuges; scintillation counters;
beta scanners; HPLC/GC; and spectrophotometers (UV/vis, fluorescence).
Computer access (both PC and Mac platforms) are available in laboratories.
Field vehicles of various types are available for terrestrial,
freshwater and marine research off campus.
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The Wertheim
Plant Conservatory (adjacent to OE) is maintained for research
and teaching purposes. The Wertheim Conservatory consists of a
plant conservatory, greenhouse and head house equipped with a
range of controlled environmental chambers and whole plant physiology
laboratory.
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The Dept. of Biological Sciences
DNA Core facility is fully equipped for DNA sequencing, fragment
analysis, and data analysis. The laboratory is a 1,000 square
foot facility housed in the new Health and Life Sciences Building.
The facility is staffed by a full -time manager / technician,
responsible for day-to-day maintenance and operation of equipment.
Equipment includes three ABI 3100 16 capillary instruments, and
a 96-well 377XL slab gel automated sequencer, with fragment and
sequence analysis software.
Supporting equipment includes thermal cyclers, centrifuges, microcentrifuges,
and a DNA speed vacuum dryer, all with rotors compatible with
microtiter plates. Additional equipment includes a spectrophotometer,
top loading and analytical balances, a water purification system,
a digital UV photo- documentation system, a -80 degree ultracold
freezer, -20 degree freezer, and a 4 degree refrigerator. Computer
support includes both Macintosh and Dell computers, and a Sun
Blade 1000 UNIX server with a site license for the Wisconsin Package,
an unlimited access use license for Seq Web, and a database update
service license. To know more about this facility check the the
link.
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The Water Quality Lab equipment includes Alpkem rapid flow nutrient
analyzers; Antek 7000N total nitrogen analyzers; Shimadzu 5000
TOC analyzers; Bausch and Lomb and Shimadzu spectrophotometers;
Gilford Fluoro-IV and Shimadzu scanning fluorometers; Walz Phyto-PAM
fluorometer; Amicon Model 200 ultrafiltration units; Beckman LS3801
scintillation counters; high performance liquid chromatographs;
capillary gas chromatographs with an assortment of specific detectors;
headspace and purge and trap gas chromatographs. Also available
is support equipment - such as a laboratory information management
system (LIMS), computer LAN, glass washing facilities, ice machines,
ultralow temperature freezers, etc. - necessary for collection,
transport and preparation of samples.
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The Microscopy and Digital Imaging Lab is equipped with several
optical microscopes and digital image capture technology specifically
fitted for algal and bacteriological studies. This includes a
Zeiss Axioscope II compound light microscope (with Nomarski/DIC
optics and high resolution Plan-Apo 10-100X objectives) equipped
with a Sony DKC 500 1.2 mp color digital camera, a Zeiss compound
epifluorescent microscope (with Plan-Neofluoar 10-100X objectives)
equipped with a Hamamatsu color chilled 3CCD 2mp digital camera,
two microcomputers with Image Pro® and other analytical software,
and a Sony UP-D5500 digital color printer to produce publication-quality
plates. A Coulter Multisizer II, equipped with Coulter AccuComp
Color Software, is available for particle/cell counting. A recent
addition is a highly sensitive flow cytometer with high-speed
cell sorting capabilities and a phosphor imager equipped for fluorescence,
chemiluminescence and radioisotopic detection. The lab also houses
a curated algal herbarium that includes a permanent specimen library
of more than 300 South Florida algal taxa, a comprehensive reference
resource of books and taxonomic literature and a digital image-based
catalogue of regional algae.
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The Trace Metals Lab has several state-of-the-art instruments
used for the determination of trace metals, metalloids, and organometallics
in a variety of environmental and biological samples. The laboratory
is also equipped to carrying out speciation research for toxic
chemical contaminants, which is one of the emerging areas in environmental
chemistry. The laboratory currently has three hydride generation-atomic
fluorescence spectrometry (AFS) systems for mercury, arsenic and
selenium analysis and speciation; three gas chromatography-atomic
fluorescence spectrometry (GC-AFS) systems for mercury speciation,
one gas chromatography-atomic emission spectrometry (GC-AES) for
simultaneous determination and speciation of organometallics;
one graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometer (GFAAS); two
high performance liquid chromatographs (HPLC), which can be coupled
to AFS for speciation of metals and metalloids; and one microwave
digestion system for digestion of environmental and biological
samples.
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The Stable Isotope Lab is equipped with three stable isotope ratio
mass spec-trometers (IRMS). Primarily, the research conducted
at the laboratory focuses on the carbon (13C/12C), nitrogen (15N/14N),
and oxygen (18O/16O) isotopic signatures in organic and inorganic
material. The laboratory has two continuous flow IRMS machines
coupled to elemental analyzers for the analysis of C, N, and O
from a variety of solid and liquid samples. These machines include
one Micromass Prism IRMS coupled to a Europa-PDZ ANACA and a Finnagin
MAT Delta C IRMS coupled to a CE 1500 Series II elemental analyzer
and a TC/EA (high temperature system). Additionally, for more
specialized compound specific isotopic measurements, the lab is
equipped with a Finnagin MAT Delta Plus coupled to an HP 6890
gas chromatograph (GC-IRMS).
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The Trace Organics Lab is equipped to conduct specialized trace
organic analyses on a wide range of environmental samples (waters,
sediments/soils, biological tissues, etc.), with methods aimed
at achieving detection limits commensurate with the low-level
concentrations of pollutants generally present in the biotic and
abiotic components in South Florida ecosystems, as well as naturally-occurring
organic compounds of biogeochemical interest. For this purpose
the laboratory has a massive array of instrumentation for the
selective analysis of the most common agrochemicals (insecticides
and herbicides) and other organic contaminants like polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and
petroleum-related hydrocarbons. The instrumentation available
for routine organic analyses includes fully automated high resolution
gas chromatography (HRGC) with selective detectors for halogenated
(Dual-ECD), nitrogen and phosphorous (NPD), and sulfur (FPD) compounds;
multi-elemental detection by atomic emission (AED) and mass selective
detectors (MSD) operating in both electronic impact and chemical
ionization modes (EI-CI). Liquid chromatographs with UV-Visible
and photo-diode array detectors (PDA) are also available.
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The Trace Organics Lab is equipped to conduct specialized trace
organic analyses on a wide range of environmental samples (waters,
sediments/soils, biological tissues, etc.), with methods aimed
at achieving detection limits commensurate with the low-level
concentrations of pollutants generally present in the biotic and
abiotic components in South Florida ecosystems, as well as naturally-occurring
organic compounds of biogeochemical interest. For this purpose
the laboratory has a massive array of instrumentation for the
selective analysis of the most common agrochemicals (insecticides
and herbicides) and other organic contaminants like polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and
petroleum-related hydrocarbons. The instrumentation available
for routine organic analyses includes fully automated high resolution
gas chromatography (HRGC) with selective detectors for halogenated
(Dual-ECD), nitrogen and phosphorous (NPD), and sulfur (FPD) compounds;
multi-elemental detection by atomic emission (AED) and mass selective
detectors (MSD) operating in both electronic impact and chemical
ionization modes (EI-CI). Liquid chromatographs with UV-Visible
and photo-diode array detectors (PDA) are also available.
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