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Biophysics Facilities
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies theories and methods from the physical sciences to questions in biology. Biophysical techniques can contribute to all areas of structural biology from expression and purification issues through to high resolution structure and can probe interactions and biology from single molecules through to whole cells. These methods have been central to the success of many research programmes in the LMB. The LMB has world class facilities for biophysical techniques run by two members of permanent staff. Most common biophysical techniques are available (AUC, ITC, DSC, CD, LD, MALS, QELS, SPR and Fluorescence) as are a number of 'in-house' instruments for performing the latest cutting edge techniques in rapid reaction kinetics or single molecule spectroscopy.
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Containment Labs
The LMB has three CL2 labs for viruses that infect mammalian cells, one CL2 lab for bacterial pathogens, and a CL3 lab is available when required, as well as facilities for culturing up to 150L of yeasts and bacteria.
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DNA Sequencing
The LMB's high-throughput Solexa sequencing facility is run in collaboration with the nearby CRUK Cambridge Research Institute.
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DNA Synthesis
The LMB's in-house service concentrates on rapid specialist syntheses such as oligos with unusual or expensive modifications, LNA/2′OMe/DNA oligos and large scale synthesis, as well as managing external orders of standard oligos.
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Electron Microscopy
The LMB has outstanding EM facilities, the focus being on electron cryomicroscopy of unstained biological material. The recent installation of a new FEI Polara microscope with energy filter has greatly facilitated electron cryo-tomography. LMB has five EMs available, of which four are equipped for work with frozen specimens and two have 300kV FEG electron sources.
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Flow Cytometry
The LMB has two FACSCalibur 4-colour analysers, one 13-colour, four-laser LSRii analyser, and two MoFlo cell sorters capable of sorting up to 30,000 cells per second. The facility provides both a service and training in new techniques.
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Mass Spec and Proteomics
The MS facility provides expertise in proteomics and protein characterisation. It has four mass spectrometers including two new, cutting-edge instruments: a MALDI-TOF/TOF (Bruker Ultraflex III) and an electrospray ion-trap with electron-transfer dissociation (Bruker HCT ETD II). It also has the latest liquid chromatography systems for sensitive nanoLC–MS/MS. The facility has recently acquired a high-resolution LTQ-Orbitrap mass spectrometer.
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Media Kitchens
The media kitchens located throughout the building provide a wide range of media and plates for bacteria, yeast, nematodes and flies, as well as a host of standard solutions and buffers. Customized media and buffers can also be prepared by consultation.
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Microfluidics Fabrication Facility
The newly-established microfluidics facility has a Neutronix Quintel 4006 mask aligner, spin-coater, plasma oven and all the equipment necessary for the fabrication of PDMS chips with feature sizes down to a few microns. The facility is available to users after a training session.
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Mouse House
The Ares Building is a new, state-of-the-art facility to house breeding and experimental colonies of rodents in disease-free conditions. It provides for the highest standard of modern transgenic production services and experimental resources to support the current and future scientific programmes of the Laboratory and other MRC Units in Cambridge. The health and welfare of animals is a major priority for the MRC, and this philosophy has significantly influenced the design of the Ares Building to provide a disease-free and enriched cage environment for mice. A full health barrier excludes pathogenic organisms and ensures that the animals are of the highest health standard possible.
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Optical Microscopy
The LMB's confocal microscope suite is equipped with advanced systems capable of spectral signal discrimination, spectral unmixing and time-lapse work with living cells. Individual groups have specialised confocal systems, including, multiphoton imaging. The modern form of confocal microscope was developed at the LMB in the mid-80s, and instrument development continues today.
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NMR
The state-of-the-art NMR facility has research spectrometers operating at 500, 600, 700 and 800 MHz, each configured for studying macromolecules enriched with 15N, 13C and 2H. The facility also incorporates robotics for screening small molecule compound libraries against potential drug targets.
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Protein Crystallization and Crystallography
The LMB's infrastructure for crystallography includes robotic stations for formulating and setting up crystallisation trials, and two X-ray generators: a Rigaku FR-E+ SuperBright generator and an RU300 generator, each equipped with two detectors. An Actor crystal-handling robot enables automated screening and data collection of up to 40 samples. This state-of-the-art facility enables optimal use of the MRC-LMB block allocations at ESRF (Grenoble) and Diamond (Oxfordshire).
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Scientific Computing
Scientific Computing provides a central UNIX resource, including a 10GB network, two multi-user 16CPU Linux machines, three large disk arrays, a 264 CPU Gridengine Cluster and much more. Advice on computational problems and access to a wide range of scientific software is freely available.
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Transgenic Mouse Facility
The LMB's transgenic mouse facility produces transgenic animals by pronuclear microinjection. It can also carry out injection of targetted embryonic stem cell clones into mouse blastocysts, after which the chimeras are bred at the Ares facility to establish germline transmission of the allele. We also provide a high-throughput genotyping service for Lab members.
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Research