Equipment

• Roche LC480 qPCR instrument
• Bio-Rad ChemiDoc imaging station
• Bio-Rad Gel Electrophoresis reagents and equipment
• Bio-Rad Western Blot transfer
• Eppendorf Gradient Thermal cycler
• ThermoFisher 2720 Thermal cyclers
• Bio-Rad T100 Thermal cyclers
• Helix agarose gel electrophoresis stations
• Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer
• Andrew plus pipetting robot
• Single and multichannel Nanodrops

Services

Nucleic Acid Isolations and plasmid preps

• Endotoxin free DNA plasmid preps of all scales
• Genomic DNA and RNA isolation
• In-vitro transcription (IVT)

Cloning and vector construction

• Design, production and validation of custom vectors using both in-house resources and outside service providers.
• Acquire and propagate vectors from outside sources such as Addgene.
• We maintain a library of backbones commonly used for virus production, protein expression and fluorescent protein labeling.
• Site-directed mutagenesis.

Gene Expression and Quantitation services  

• Spatial transcriptomics using a Vizgen MERSCOPE instrument.
• QPCR and qRT-PCR gene expression analysis, and genotyping using commercial probe sets or designing novel assays.
• Mycoplasma testing for cell cultures.

Protein Purification, production and quantification

• Bacteria-based recombinant protein expression and purification
• Separation-based protein isolation from cells and tissue.
• Protein electrophoreses and Western blot analysis.
• Manage outsourced projects for high volume protein production.

Resources

Vector Construction

Cloning and vector construction services that encompass design, production, and validation of custom vectors are available. The staff can work with you to design a strategy or carry out your cloning plan. We maintain a library of commonly used backbones and plasmid elements for applications that include virus production, protein expression, and fluorescent protein tagging. The staff is experienced in a variety of cloning techniques as well as modifying inserts using site-directed mutagenesis. We can also acquire vectors from outside sources and manage the outsourcing of vector construction projects to service providers.    

Nucleic Acid Isolation and Preparation

Plasmid DNA preps of all scales including endotoxin-free DNA preps are available. The facility can also provide post-purification services, such as restriction enzyme analysis, sequencing, and purification of inserts for cloning. We can also prepare in-vitro transcribed RNA for use in microinjection or in-situ hybridization applications.

Gene Expression and Quantitation services

The facility maintains a MX3005P real-time PCR instrument for quantitative expression analysis. The staff can also design and synthesis probes to validate expression patterns using in-situ hybridization.

Genotyping

Verification of transgenes through PCR based genotyping and sequencing is available.