The Cell and Molecular Core Facility provides state-of-the-art facilities to support experimental demands ranging from routine culture techniques to advanced cell transfection and cell sorting capabilities. Routine tissue culture needs are supported by two Biosafety Cabinets, a pair of CO₂ incubators, refrigerators and freezers, environmental rooms, centrifuges, water baths, and inverted microscopes.

Chris Bjornsson, Ph.D.
Director, Cell and Molecular Core Facility
Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
110 8th St.
Troy, NY 12180

Tel: 518-276-3456
Fax: 518-276-4233
Email: bjornc@rpi.edu

Instrumentation

BD Sciences FACSAria flow cytometer is capable of identifying cells based on size, complexity, and up to 13 different fluorescent labels, and sorting them into separate test tubes or multiwell plates. The sample chamber includes temperature control to improve the long-term viability of the cells being sorted.

BD Sciences LSRII flow cytometer is capable of analyzing more fluorescent labels than the Aria, but lacks sorting capability. The system includes a High Throughput Sampler (HTS) option to handle 96- and 384-well microtiter plates to permit high-throughput screening of large samples.

GE Typhoon Trio+ is a confocal flatbed scanner with a 10mm lateral resolution scanner ideal for imaging fluorescently labeled blots, gels, multiwell trays, and even tissue sections. A storage phosphor can be used to detect radioactive signal from beta particles, X-rays, and gamma rays.

Roche LightCycler 480 RT-PCR The LightCycler 480 system utilizes a novel block technology to allow the rapid heating and cooling required to complete a 40-cycle, 384-well quantitative PCR run in less than 40 minutes with exceptional reproducibility. Five excitation and six emission filters permit flexible experimental design. The LightCycler 480 System will meet the needs of a broad range of scientific applications in genomics research including microarray validation, gene-knockdown studies, and SNP analysis.

Amaxa Nucleofector uses a non-viral transfection technology to introduce nucleic acids (both DNA and RNA) into stem cells, primary cells, and cell lines that are difficult to transfect. Experiments involving transfection of siRNA or RNAi, transient or stable gene expression, and small-scale protein production are all possible.