Lab Equipment
The primary laboratory facilities are comprised of 1500 square feet of laboratory space. Cell (chondrocytes, mesenchymal stem cells, synoviocytes, fibroblasts, meniscofibrochondrocytes) and tissue (cartilage, meniscus, bone, osteochondral, ligament explants) culture, tissue and fluid analysis, immunohistochemistry, SDS-PAGE, Zymography, Western-blotting, Southern-Blotting, Northern-Blotting, RNA and DNA extraction, PCR, RT-PCR, Agarose Gel electrophoresis, and high-performance liquid chromatography are performed in this area.
Access to a complete histopathology laboratory is available on site. Histologic sectioning, staining, and immunohistochemistry techniques are routinely performed in this laboratory. The investigators have access to state-of-the-art operating rooms and surgical equipment at the university hospitals and clinics, regional hospital, and veterinary medical teaching hospital. The laboratories have 6 IBM-compatible computers. Secretarial services are available for manuscript preparation and reports.
Equipment available for use includes:
- Artscan 1000 arthroscopic cartilage stiffness testing system
- FlexCell FX-4000 Compression Plus bioreactor
- Nu-Aire CO2 and triple-gas incubators
- Lab-line incubator, Fisher Small Isotemp hybridization incubator
- Zeiss fluorescent microscope
- Olympus BH-2 light microscopes
- Nikon phase-contrast inverted microscope
- BioRad Radiance 2000 confocal system coupled to an Olympus IX70 inverted microscope
- Fovea 3.0 digital image analysis software
- Rotational stirrers
- Variable temperature water baths
- 2 Nu-Aire laminar flow hoods
- 2 -80 oC upright freezers
- Sorvall high-speed centrifuge
- Beckman table-top centrifuge
- Fisher Marathon 3200 centrifuge
- Bio-Tek Synergy HT multi-detection microplate reader
- Packard microplate reader 7200
- Beckman DU-65 spectrophotometer
- Fisher acu-124 scaler
- Micro-titer plate readers
- Fisher microprocessor controlled electrophoresis unit
- Fisher semi dry blotting unit
- BioRad Mini-protean II
- Invitrogen Novex Mini-Cell
- Perkin Elmer Geneamp 9700
- Pheonix Research Products Rotor-Gene 3000
- Kodak EDAS 290
- Eppendorf 5417
- Refrigerated Microcentrifuge
- Rage electrophoresis system
- BRL S2 Sequencing gel system
- high-performance liquid chromatography equipment
- Micromill x, y, z axes-controlled milling machine
- Instron 8821 biaxial materials testing machine