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Biology at MIT Research Facilities
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Please see this important information from Chris Kaiser regarding the data storage systems known as DNA-NET and Bionet (MIT certificates necessary to access this site). This information is housed on the BioWiki, which is a resource available to the Biology community.
There are a number of facilities on and near the MIT campus which are available to the Department’s faculty, as well as (in some cases) to the local research community. Below are some of the often-used resources with contact information.
The BioMicro Center was established in 2000 as the core bio-fabrication and bio-information technology resource at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Center is a joint endeavor of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences, the Department of Biology, the Center for Cancer Research, and Biological Engineering Division. The Center aims to provide an integrated facility for biofabrication, microarray analysis, database storage, bioinformatics, data mining and data modeling.
The BioMicro Center maintains a strong commitment to new technology development and deployment. A focus on new technology also helps to ensure that the BioMicro Center remains at the cutting edge of high throughput analytical methods.
Contact:
Rebecca Fry, PhD, rfry [a]t mit.edu
Biomicro Center home page
The Biophysical Instrumentation Facility houses instruments for aiding in the elucidation of macromolecular structure. The facility was established by Dr. Barbara Imperiali and is located in the Dreyfus Chemistry Building. It is largely used by researchers in Chemistry, Biology, and Biological Engineering but is available to anyone on campus and beyond.
The facility contains an analytical ultracentrifuge, a CD spectrometer, a dynamic light scatterer, an isothermal titration calorimeter, a differential scanning calorimeter and a fluorescence plate reader. It is staffed 40 hours a week by Debby Pheasant who is available to train new users and provide advice to anyone considering potential applications of the equipment in the facility.
Location: 18-511
Contact: Debby Pheasant pheasant [at] mit.edu
BIF website
The Biopolymers Laboratory is a shared instrumentation service laboratory, funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the MIT David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research with the purpose of providing state of the art research instrumentation to the faculty and staff of MIT.
The concept of the Laboratory is to combine in one location expensive and highly automated instrumentation with the technical expertise needed to operate and maintain it efficiently. The cost of supplies and reagents utilized in a synthesis or analysis is "charged back" to individual research laboratories. As a consequence, each research laboratory has at its disposal hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of sophisticated research equipment and a highly trained technical staff ready to conduct experiment, allowing researchers to utilize modern techniques without having to invest their time, funds and laboratory space on an individual basis.
The Laboratory serves only on-campus laboratories and HHMI researchers.
Location: E17-415.
Contact: Richard F. Cook, 3-1685 talktome [at] biopolymers.mit.edu
Biopolymers home page
The Flow Cytometry laboratory is a core facility located within the Center for Cancer Research. The facility is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Center for Cancer Research's Cancer Center Support Core Grant from the National Cancer Institute, and user fees. In addition, both the Whitehead Institute and MIT have provided recent equipment support. Daily operation of the lab is conducted by the lab manager along with a technical assistant; Dr. Jianzhu Chen is the faculty supervisor. The lab has been associated with the Center for Cancer Research since 1987.
The Center provides state-of-the-art equipment and expertise in fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS). Our laboratory has the capability to run many advanced flow cytometry applications. These include DNA cell cycle analysis, six-color immunophenotyping experiments, calcium flux, chromosome sorting, and cloning. Also, any particle in suspension that is greater than .5um and less than 150um can be analyzed and sorted.
The facility has acquired a magnetic cell separation system (autoMACS). By using this system, large numbers of cells can be sorted for a single cell surface marker with high purity in a short period of time.
The Flow Cytometry lab is open to all MIT and Whitehead researchers. Experiments are run Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. If you would like to schedule an appointment, please call.
Location: E18-463.
Contacts: Glenn Paradis or Mike Jennings, 253-6454
Flow Cytometry Lab home page
Fannie E. Rippel Foundation Transgenic Facility
This central facility, located in the Center for Cancer Research, provides fee-for-service support to MIT investigators who utilize novel mouse models to study cancer, cardiovascular disease, aging and other human ailments. The Rippel Transgenic Facility assists researchers with the generation, maintenance and analysis of mouse models.
Services Currently Offered:
For expanded descriptions of these services, please see the Facility's website or contact: Aurora Burds Connor Ph.D., Facility Manager, at aaburds at mit.edu.
The W.M. Keck Microscope Facility provides scientists with the equipment and training necessary to generate and interpret light and electron microscope images. The facility includes state-of-art imaging platforms and image processing and analysis software, including Nikon upright and inverted light microscopes for live cell time-lapse fluorescence, phase contrast, and DIC imaging, Zeiss LSM510 META confocal microscope, Perkin Elmer UltraView RS confocal microscope, Eppendorf microinjection station, Hamamatsu Orca CCD cameras, JEOL 5600LV SEM, Phillips 410 TEM, and microtomes for cutting cryosections for light and electron microscopy. Imaging software packages include OpenLab and Velocity (Improvision), Imaris (BitPlane), and Huygens (SVI).
The facility provides a full-service menu including consulting on imaging projects, sample preparation, imaging, and imaging software. A particular expertise of the facility is immunoelectron microscopy imaging services. The Facility is located on the 4th floor of the Whitehead Institute and is managed by Ms. Nicki Watson. In addition to serving the Whitehead and MIT community, the facility is open to the local research community. A full list of imaging facility equipment is on the website.
Contact: Nicki Watson, watson [at] wi.mit.edu
W.M. Keck Microscopy Facility home page