Facilities

The School has a superb range of specialised facilities available to staff, postgraduate and honours students.

X-Ray facilities

SAXS: The X-Ray Scattering facilities comprise a sealed tube X-Ray generator equipped with two Anton-Parr cameras, one each on the line and point sources. Each camera can be used in small-angle or wide-angle mode with image plates or a CCD detector. The instrument allows us to obtain low resolution structural information that is particularly useful for the analysis of protein complexes and multidomain proteins.

X-Ray Diffraction: The X-ray diffraction facilities are comprised of a rotating-anode generator with two Marreseach Desk-Top-Beamlines with Mar 345 imaging plates, Osmic optics and Oxford Cryosystems crystal cooling devices. They allow us to collect X-ray diffraction data and determine atomic resolution macromolecular structures in-house.

Mosquito Positive Displacement Robot: The Mosquito Positive Displacement Robot, which accurately pipettes small (sub microlitre) volumes, enables researchers to set up in 10 minutes what would have ordinarily taken one day to complete.

Spectrometers

NMR Spectrometry: The School houses three high-field Bruker NMR spectrometers, an AvanceIII-400 widebore, an AvanceIII-600 and an AvanceIII-800. The 400 is equipped with a variety of probeheads, including units for small animal imaging and high-power diffusion measurements. The 600- and 800-MHz instruments are equipped with cryogenically cooled probes that are optimized for the collection of structural and dynamics data on proteins and protein complexes. More

Atomic Absorption Spectrometer: Used to measure trace elements.

Proteomics: The School hosts the Sydney University Proteome Research Unit (SUPRU), for state-of-the-art gel and mass spectrometry based proteomics analysis. SUPRU has three mass spectrometers (5500 QTRAP, QSTAR Elite and a Voyager) and an FLA9000 lasers scanner. For more information, contact More

Circular Dichroism Spectropolarimetry: A new Jasco 815 circular dichroism spectropolarimeter is used for investigating protein (and other macromolecular) conformation and conformational changes. The spectropolarimeter is equipped with a variable temperature unit for temperature control. Contact Dr Jacqui Matthews for further information.

Mass Spectrometer: The School houses a Thermoelectron LCQ electrospray mass spectrometer interfaced with a liquid chromatography system for MS and LC-MS analysis of proteins and peptides. More

Chromatography

Gas Chromatography: Fatty acids are separated and percentages in food and biological samples are determined on a Gas Chromatograph. Contact Mr Zia Ahmad for further details.

HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography): Sugars in biological and food samples are separated and quantitated by Dyonex HPLC. Contact Mr Zia Ahmad for further details.

HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography): Vitamins, sugars and amino acids in samples are determined by High Performance Chromatography. Contact Mr Zia Ahmad for further details.

HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography): High precision pumps, facilitate protein purification by allowing researchers to pass protein solutions over a variety of columns containing different chemical surfaces.

Biosafety

biosafety_cabinet
Biosafety cabinets: Biosafety Class II cabinets are for personal and environmental protection when dealing with microbes that are potentially capable of causing disease in humans. The UV light kills microbes and inactivates DNA.

PC2 Lab: PC2 (shown above) and PC3 laboratories are contained facilities for risk management and handling of pathogens and molecular manipulations.

Nutrition

Teaching & Research Kitchen: Glycemic Index studies are conducted in the teaching and research kitchen in the University of Sydney's Teachers College.

Teaching & Research Kitchen: Volunteers participate in trials held in the teaching and research kitchens.

Teaching Kitchen: GI studies conducted in our teaching kitchen.

Autoanalyser: Hitachi autoanalyser is used to determine the concentration of various metabolites in samples. Contact Mr Zia Ahmad for further information.

Bomb Calorimeter: Total energy in foods is determined by igniting samples under oxygen in a ballistic bomb.

General

Analytical Ultracentrifugation: Analytical Ultracentrifugation:The School is equipped with a Beckman XL-A analytical ultracentrifuge. This is used to probe both the association behaviour and the molecular shape of proteins and other biomolecules in solution. Contact either Dr Joel Mackay or Dr Jacqui Matthews for further information or enquiries. Note enquiries about the use of the Beckman Coulter Optima L-80 XP Preparative Ultracentrifuge or Airfuge (i.e. most ultracentrifugation needs such as nucleic acid purification/ cell fractionation) should be directed to Dr Dale Hancock. More

The University of Sydney - School of Molecular Bioscience