http://chemistry.gsu.edu/BDD

Core Facilities

      BDD faculty have received significant extramural support from federal and state agencies as well as from industry to equip several core facilities. These facilities are housed in the new Natural Science Center on the Georgia State University campus and are available on a fee-per-service basis for use by industry, government and other academic institutions.

Molecular Biology Facility
      The molecular biology core facility provides synthetic olignonucleotides and peptides. Equipment items housed in the facility include three DNA synthesizers, a peptide sequencer, a two peptide synthesizers, a phosphoimager, a fluoroimager, a scanning densitometer, and two DNA sequencers. In addition, the facility has recently purchased a cell sorter, an amino acid analyzer, an image analysis system, beta- and gamma- radiocounters, two microtiter plate readers, several robotic workstations, a CD spectrometer, a fluorospectro-photometer and several capillary electrophoresis systems. The facility also maintains several general equipement items, including tabletop and floor ultracetrifuges, thermal cyclers, HPLC systems, Biosys. 2000 protein separation system, FPLC and Phast systems, and DNA and protein sequence analysis programs.
Photographic Facilities
      Darkroom and graphic facilities include printing and slidemaking equipment as well as automated X-ray film processing.
Electron microscopy facility
      The microscopy unit lends support for a wide range of research, including light ad fluorescence microscopy as well as scanning adn transmission electron microscopy. Instruction and assistance in all phases of microscopy research are available, ranging from sample preparation and operation of instruments to photographic and electronic management of data.
Graphic Design Workstations
      All research laboratories are equipped with microcomputers and where needed, are linked to the mainframe in the Georgia State University computer center, which currently operates an Onyx(?) Silicon Graphics mini-super computer.
NMR Support Facility
      With the recent addition of a 500-MHz and a 600-MHz NMR spectrometer, Georgia State University has on of the Southeast's major facilities for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The BDD Center also operates a Varian 400-MHz instrument, a Varian 300-MHz spectrometer and three 60-MHz machines.
Molecular Modeling Facility
      Computer-based molecular modeling and molecular-energy minimization methods are having a major impact on areas such as drug design, determination of molecular conformation and visualization of protein structures. The BDD research center has excellent hardware and software for the visualization of molecular structure and interaction, and for quantum chemical, molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics calculation.
Fermentation Facility
      The fermentation facility includes state-of-the-art New Brunswick 1.5-liter, 14-liter, 30-liter and 150-liter fermenters with temperature and pH controls, cell harvesting equipment and a large-scale (up to 1kg of cells) homogenizer/cell diruptor, as well as a novel prototype centrifugal fermenter.