Research Facilities

Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging (CMGI)

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

• Inveon DPET (Siemens Preclinical Solutions): The Inveon DPET is built upon the proven technology of LSO crystal elements for the detection of the 511keV gamma photons from the positron decay of radioactive nuclides. This is the third generation of commercial small animal PET technology using LSO as the photon detection material. The bore size is 12cm with an active transaxial field-of-view of 10cm and an axial field-of-view of 12.7cm. This long field of view makes it an easy task to perform whole body mouse imaging and larger single field of view rat imaging. The spatial resolution is of the order of about 1.3 mm
• Focus 120 (Siemens Preclinical Solutions): Commercial animal PET scanner with 15 cm bore, 10 cm transaxial field of view, 8 cm axial field of view. With maximum a posteriori (MAP) reconstruction incorporating accurate system model (standard reconstruction algorithm that we use), image resolution is about 1.5 mm.
• Simultaneous PET/MRI:SimPET/MRI (Aspect Imaging, housed at the UC Davis Mouse Biology Program): The Aspect SimPET/M7 compact, high-performance, one-touch MRI M7 system with the SimPET insert has recently been installed at the UC Davis Mouse Biology Program bio-containment barrier facility and is operated by CMGI in collaboration with the MBSR. This system is capable of performing simultaneous PET/MRI scans and is intended for dedicated imaging of mice and rats.

Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and MicroCT

• Inveon microSPECT/CT (Siemens).  The CT scanner for high-resolution anatomic imaging in mice is integrated with a dual-head SPECT system.  The CT system comes with a variable focus x-ray source that can operate in microfocus mode (< 6 microns) providing an image resolution of 15 microns for specimen work, as well as operating with a spot size of 50 microns and at 65 watts for high-speed in vivo imaging.  The x-ray detector is a 14-bit 4064x4064 pixel CCD system coupled via optical fiber taper to a GOS screen.  The field of view can be as large as 100 mm x 100 mm. Respiratory gating is implemented on the system.  Also includes a real time reconstruction engine to provide whole-body mouse images with ~0.1 mm resolution in <10 minutes, and a high performance 64-bit LINUX workstation for visualization of large datasets. The microSPECT system consists of two 15 x 15 cm detector heads comprising 2x2x10 mm NaI(Tl) crystals.  Six pinhole collimators (0.5, 1, 2 and 3 mm single hole apertures and 0.5 and 1.0 mm 5 pinhole apertures) and one parallel hole collimator are provided. The system can be used for imaging a range of radionuclides, including 125I, 131I, 99mTc and 111In.

MR Imaging

•  Biospec 70/30USR (Bruker BioSpin): The Bruker Biospec 7T (300 MHz) horizontal bore system is equipped for in vivo small-animal imaging and spectroscopy. The system utilizes Bruker’s Paravision version 6 imaging software, which incorporates all standard as well as recently developed imaging protocols in a user-friendly interface that also allows reasonably sophisticated image processing. The Biospec 7T has two gradient sets. The larger is 200mm i.d and the gradient strength is capable of 200mT/m at 200A. The smaller gradient set is 116mm i.d and gradient strength is capable of 450mT/m at 200A. The system has a suite of 1H volume and surface coils. Users also have access to a pair of surface coils for 1H/13C and 1H/31P. The system also has an electronic filter for 19F imaging and a purchased 1H/19F volume coil. The system came with custom animal beds for positioning and incorporate heating to warm the animals. Physiologic monitoring can also be incorporated to improve image quality and animal health.

Optical Imaging

•  IVIS Spectrum (Caliper/Perkin Elmer): This is a state-of-the-art optical molecular imaging system for in vivo small animal studies using bioluminescent or fluorescent reporter genes, or injectable fluorescence contrast agents. All images are captured by a thermoelectrically cooled back-thinned, back-illuminated CCD camera, with a 2048 x 2048 array of 13.5 micron pixels (27 x 27 mm total area) and a 16-bit digitizer using 6-inch diameter optics with f-stop values that can be varied from f/1 to f/8. A computer-controlled filter wheel with 18 narrow-band (20 nm bandwidth) emission filters provide wavelength selectivity in the range 490-850 nm, with space for a further 6 custom filters. For fluorescence imaging, a high intensity broad-band excitation source is filtered by one of ten computer-selectable excitation filters with bandwidths of 30 nm and covering an excitation range of 415-760 nm. A further two slots are available to add custom excitation filters. The fluorescence light is delivered via an optical fiber and can illuminate the subject in either reflectance (epi-illumination) or transmission mode by selecting the appropriate fiber bundle switch. The system can image a magnified view of a single mouse up to 5 mice at a single time, with a field of view that varies between 3.9 cm and 22.5 cm, with magnification and f/stop all under computer control. The light-tight imaging chamber has integrated gas anesthesia and a heated stage to maintain animals at physiologic temperature while under anesthesia. The stage is computer-controlled to allow accurate positioning of the subject. LED lamps allow photographic images of the animal to be captured.
•  Maestro II (CRi): The CRi Maestro 2 system consists of a light-tight enclosure, a heated animal stage, a high intensity broad-band excitation source, a liquid-crystal tunable filter that allows selection of spectral information between 650 and 950 nm in the emitted fluorescence signal, and a sensitive cooled CCD camera. The excitation source emits over a broad spectrum and into the near infra-red and is thus suitable for in vivo studies with a range of fluorophores and fluorescent proteins. The excitation light passes through an excitation filter wheel and is delivered to the animal via fiberoptic light guides. The returning fluorescence from the specimen passes through a zoom lens (with motorized collar for magnification and field of view control) and an emission filter wheel with long-pass filters that block the excitation light. The signal then passes through a liquid-crystal tunable filter, unique to CRi Inc., that allows the selection of emitted fluorescence signals in narrow wavelength bands of down to 5 nm and can be switched rapidly to enable the fast acquisition of images in multiple spectral bands. The spectral range for fluorescence emission detection is 500-950 nm with an achievable spectral resolution of 5 nm. The cooled, scientific-grade CCD with 1.4 megapixels (1392 x 1040) allows for sensitive detection of the light in the narrow spectral bands. It is capable of 15 frames per second, and has 12-bit digitization. The Maestro2 system includes software for spectral unmixing, in which the multispectral data is used to model and classify the signals emitted from the fluorophore of interest and to separate this from tissue autofluorescence. This is critically important, as tissue autofluorescence is a key limiting factor in sensitive detection at depth with fluorescence. This spectral unmixing software has also been used successfully to separate multiple fluorophores that have distinct spectral characteristics, allowing the simultaneous imaging of more than one fluorescent probe or fluorescent protein

Biospecimen Imaging and Processing

•  Fluorescence Imaging Cryomicrotome (Barlow Scientific): This system consists of a light-tight cryomicrotome, a high intensity broad-band excitation source filtered by one of five computer-selectable filters on one wheel, a second wheel that filters the image with one of five computer-selectable filters, and CCD camera to record images. The excitation source is a 300W xenon lamp that emits over a broad spectrum and into the near infra-red and is thus suitable for in vivo studies with a range of fluorophores, quantum dots, and fluorescent proteins. The excitation light passes through an excitation filter wheel that illuminates the exposed face of a frozen block of tissue. One of five computer-selectable filter wheels can be chosen to excite fluorescence. The returning fluorescence from the specimen passes through one of five computer-selectable filters that selects the fluorescence wavelength of interest and a Nikon F-mount lens zoom lens (with motorized collar for magnification and field of view control). An Apogee U32 CCD camera with 2184x1472 pixels pixels (3 Mpixels) detector records each image. The system can image blocks as large as 5 x 5” (blockface surface) by 10” long. Image resolution is 18 microns/pixel at a 4cm field of view. The microtome part of the system removes successive slices from the frozen specimen but instead of saving them, as in a conventional microtome, the slices are discarded. The system images the exposed face of the frozen specimen and proprietary software takes the images from successive slices to deduce the actual location of the fluorescence; the software takes into account that the fluorescence imaged originates from a range of depths into the specimen that depend on the tissue optical properties at the excitation and fluorescence wavelengths. Multiple images can be taken between slices. This procedure enables imaging of multiple fluorophores each on a separate image but all automatically registered.
•  MicroXCT-200 (XRadia): The Xradia MicroXCT-200 consists of a 90 kV micro-focused source; CCD camera; multiple optics to switch between resolution imaging modes; phase enhanced detectors; and a precision stage resting on a granite base. It comes complete with a multiprocessor workstation that incorporates graphic accelerators and tomographic software for highly efficient conebeam reconstruction, viewing, image processing, and analysis. The 90 kV source is a tungsten based, closed, reflecting source. It can be operated between 20 kV and 90 kV with 8 W maximum power. A kit of 12 filters is supplied to vary beam filtration. Four different detectors (based on a scintillator coupled to an optical light objective), with different magnification factors (1X to 20X), are installed on a software-controlled turret. X-rays are transmitted through the specimen and converted into optical photons by the scintillator. These optical photons are magnified by the optical light objective and captured by the CCD camera. The CCD camera has a 2048 x 2048 pixel array, and is cooled and operated at –50°C to minimize noise. Readout is 16-bit. The final resolution ranges from 1 µm to 20 µm depending on the magnification factor, with a sample field of view ranging from 30 – 50 mm. The 4-axis motorized sample stage is capable of 360° rotation for complete tomographic sampling and has a 1 kg load capacity. It includes pin, clamp and clip sample holders to allow a wide range of sample materials to be securely fixed to the stage. The X-ray enclosure is lined with 11 mm of lead so that exposure outside the cabinet during measurements is < 1 µSv/hr. There also is a visual light camera, allowing the sample to be seen during imaging. A high-speed workstation (quad core) for data acquisition, image reconstruction (GPU-based acceleration) and 3D image visualization and analysis (including software) is included. The system comes with 4MB RAM and operates on the Windows XP Pro platform. Reconstruction time for a 1024 slice volume using GPU acceleration is < 3 mins.

Additional Equipment

•  Cryostat CM1850 (Leica): The CM1850 microtome allows fresh frozen tissue sectioning with thicknesses from 1 µm up to 60 µm. The thickness can be set in increments of 1 µm (0-10 µm, 2 µm (10-20 µm), and 5 µm (20-60 µm). The temperature in the chamber can be chosen between 0 ˚C and -35 ˚C. The maximum specimen size is 55 mm. Tissue samples are fixated and frozen in OCT (TissueTek, USA) by liquid nitrogen or ice spray. In addition, the cryostat has a peltier unit which cools down up to -60 ˚C. Protocols for histological staining (H&E), immunohistochemistry and autoradiography are set up. A vertical specimen stroke of 59 mm allows sectioning of a whole mouse (up to 6 weeks of age) for whole body autoradiography. Special specimen holders and protocols for whole-body sectioning have been set up.
•  Phosphor Imager STORM 860 (Amersham Biosciences): The STORM imager comprises “filmless” autoradiography with storage phosphor screens as well as fluorescence imaging of fresh frozen sections, gels, blotting assays, and microarray imaging. The spatial resolution of the laser is about 100 µm. Since the laser scans the probes perpendicularly, even well plates can be analyzed quantitatively with minimal “blooming effect”. The two built in lasers (blue and red) in combination with 520 nm and 650 nm filters make fluorescence imaging of the most common dyes (GFP, Cy5, Cy3, etc.) feasible. Two phosphor screens with a size of 35 cm x 43 cm and an intrinsic resolution of 50 µm are available for autoradiography. The ImageQuant software package allows qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data.
•  Gamma Counter Wallac 1470 WIZARD (Perkin Elmer, USA): The Wallac 1470 gamma counter is equipped with 5 detectors, allowing high throughput measurements of tissue samples for biodistribution studies. The well-type detectors, with an almost 4π-geometry, ensure high sensitivity and counting results independent of the exact location of small samples in the tubes. The Wallac 1470 accepts up to 500 tubes with a diameter up to 13 mm in automated mode and up to 17 mm in manual mode. All radioisotopes with gamma energies less than 900 keV can be measured without significant cross talk between the probes. A 10-bit multi-channel-analyzer ensures high resolution data acquisition. The software includes all necessary setup and quality control procedures (e.g. norm, energy resolution, background, detector stability, calibration). The data are readout in ASCII format and imported in a custom EXCEL worksheet for further calculations such as “% injected dose per gram tissue”.
•  High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC, Waters Breeze 2) system: An HPLC system (Waters Breeze 2) with UV (254 nm) and RA detection capabilities is available. A Phenomenex Luna C18 250 x 4.6 mm column is used with this system.

Biomedical Cyclotron and Radiochemistry

•  The laboratory contains an RDS 111 (CTI Inc.) 11 MeV negative ion biomedical cyclotron, primarily for the production of 18F, 11C and 64Cu to support PET imaging studies. Radiochemistry have 3 Von Gahlen research hot cells all with tweezer manipulators, glove ports as well as full front and rear door access, 2 hot cells with a set of CRL manipulators as well as a set of dual minicells. Each hot cell houses a shielded dose calibrator (Capintec, CRC-15). Automated modules for remote synthesis include SYNTHIA, an automated synthesis unit for C-11 chemistry, and the GE nucelophilic and electrophilic boxes for fluorination chemistry. Analytical equipment includes 2 Beckmann Gold HPLC systems with on line diode array detection (126 detector), UV detection (116 detector) and radiochemical detection (3200 flow cell, Bioscan) as well as an Agilent 6890 gas chromatography system and an AR200 thin layer chromatography scanner (Bioscan). All equipment is located in the CMGI immediately adjacent to small-animal imaging facilities. The facility provides a list of selected routinely available radiotracers produced by this facility. Other radiopharmaceuticals can be synthesized or developed if there is a sufficient level of interest. CMGI can also arrange access to any commercially available contrast agents for optical imaging, CT and MRI for researchers wishing to utilize these agents.

TEAM Lab

TEAM is a campus development core facility. Our facilities are focused on manufacturing devices ranging in scale from molecules, to cells, to mechanical or electro-mechanical devices, and hybridized arrangements of those two systems.

Molecular/Biological

• BSL-1 Cell Prototyping and Propagation
• Protein Expression / Preparative Purification
• MPBIL Equipment:
  • 3-BioRad Gradient Enabled T100 Thermal Cyclers
  • Applied Biosystems Proflex Thermal Cyclers with three independently controlled gradient enabled blocks
  • Eppendorf Thermo Cyclers with gradient enabled blocks.
• Roche Cobas 480z qPCR Machine and Software Suite. This qPCR machine is equipped with 465nm, 498nm, 540nm, 610nm, 680nm excitation filters and 510nm, 580nm, 610nm, 645nm, 670nm, 700nm emission filters.
• PCR Machines:
• TECAN Infinite M200 Plate reader. Can measure absorbance and fluorescence from 300nm-1000nm in a wide range of well-plate formats. The unit is also equipped with temperature (ambient to 40°C) and shaking controls.

Electrical/Mechanical

• 3D Printing: 5 distinct 3D printing technologies offered: FDM, Reinforced FDM,SLA, CLIP and Polyjet
• 3D Scanning: TEAM offers multiple optical scanning technologies, including low-definition (but fast) handheld scanning, and high-definition (but slow) benchtop scanning.  We also offer marker-free motion-capture services. 3D Scanning can be used to create a digital 3D representation of an existing physical object at an accuracy of ~50-100 microns. The digital models can be used for graphic visualization, reverse engineering, replication, and designing surrounding parts or assemblies.
• Kern micro 24 laser cutting system: can be used for high precision cutting and engraving in a variety of substrates
• Machining:
• 3-Axis CNC Mill
• CNC Lathe
• CNC router
• table and band saw
• belt sander
• drill press
• Printed Circuit Board micro-mill
• Formech 450DT thermoforming (vacuum forming) machine
• Equipment for a variety of casting techniques

Biomedical instrumentation Lab

Multiple data acquisition stations are located in rooms 2603 and 2402 of GBSB.

• Dedicated dark room (250 sq. ft.) with ambient light control with two optical benches, diode lasers, CCD, EMCCD, motorized stages, lenses, filters, beamsplitters and other optical components.
• Five dedicated data acquisition stations for evaluating PET detector performance consisting of light-tight box, NIM modules, digitizers and data acquisition software. nuclear radiation detector development and evaluation.
• Laboratory equipment includes sealed radioactive sources (68Ge, 22Na, 55Fe, 57Co), translation and rotation stages, scintillators (LSO, GSO, LuAP, BGO, NaI(Tl), CsI(Tl), plastic), many
• Photodetectors (including photodiodes, APDs, PMTs),
• A wide array of pulse-processing NIM electronics, chilled dry air and liquid nitrogen-based detector cooling systems, monochromator, diamond saw, polishing machine, oven, furnace, fume hood, UV curing station for optical epoxies, and a gas anesthesia set-up for rodents. Reagents include reflectors, glues and coupling media. 18F and 11C are available via the biomedical cyclotron.
• 148-core networked cluster for simulations, reconstruction and image processing. The cluster has a total of 156 GB memory and 10 TB hard disk storage space. Installed software packages include C and FORTRAN compilers, MATLAB, and ASIpro. All computers and the cluster are connected to the Internet. A number of networked workstations, a high-resolution monochrome display station for human observer studies, and printers.

Biophotonics laboratory

• Laser/Light Sources: a) three Nitrogen lasers (two from LTB and one from EG&G) with dye laser options and frequency doubling capabilities, b) a PicoQuant UV laser diode (391nm, 60ps); c) Big Sky flash lamp pumped Nd:YAG laser with frequency doubling and quadrupling capabilities; d) a Schwartz EO solid state laser system capable of housing a variety of available laser rods including Tm:YAG, Ho:YAG, and Er:YAG; e) a 20mW Omnichrome HeCd laser (442nm); f) a 30mW Spectra Physics He-Ne; g) two mercury lamps X-cite 120 and Super Spot MK II as UV-visible light source, and other light sources include various halogen, Xenon, and Hg light sources; h) Fiber laser UVPower355-0.2-pp-cst (Fianium, 50 mW at 1 MHz rep rate, <30 ps pulsewidth)
• Spectroscopic equipment: a) an ASI scanning imaging interferometer capable of VIS/NIR multispectral imaging; b) two Princeton Instruments CCD cameras with associated Micromax controllers and HV pulser; c) two spectrograph/monochromators (0.5m SPEX and 0.25m ORIEL), as well as three 0.25m Chromex/Aries imaging spectrographs; d) a fast-scanning monochromator MicroHR from Horiba Jobin. In addition, NIST traceable wavelength and intensity calibration lamps are also available. The laboratory is also equipped  with  four vibration  isolation  optical  tables,  two  optical  breadboards, and  an  extensive  array  of UV-VIS-NIR optics, detectors, power/energy meters, filters, microscopes, and other ancillary electrooptics equipment. Fiber polishing equipments and other accessories are available for in-house design and development of fiber-optics-based catheters.
• Detectors, Cameras, Diagnostic and other associated equipment: a) Tektronix 7912HB programmable digitizer, and four Tektronix digital oscilloscopes (TDS520C: 500MHz, 1GS/s; TDS680C DSO: 1GHz, 5GS/s; TDS5104 DPO: 1GHz, 5GS/s; DPO7254: 2.5 GHz, 40 GS/s) with extended memory options; b) a Standford Research digital delay generator (DG535); c) a two-channel gated photon counter (SR400); d) two boxcar averagers; e) three dual phase lock-in amplifiers; f) three Hamamatsu gated MCP-PMTs as well as other various PMTs, solid state detectors and associated fast electronics; g) one beam profiling systems (Beam View, Big Sky/Coherent) incorporating two high resolution Cohu CCD cameras; h) 4 Picos intensified CCD camera with the gating time up to 200 ps and repetition rate 200kHz for continuous mode or 3.3 MHz at burst mode. It is a compact integrated device including an internal delay generator and a power supply.
• Minimally Invasive Resources/Endoscopic equipment: A variety of flexible and rigid endoscopes, imaging bundles, and endoscopic accessories are available. Three fully equipped endoscopic towers (Storz, Macy Angioskop, and Medical Dynamics) are also available. Each tower includes a color CCD camera, a 300W Xenon light source, a video recorder, and high-resolution monitor. Ancillary endoscopic equipment such as generators, video printers, light cables, various catheters, irrigation pumps are available. This equipment allows for applications of a variety of minimally invasive optical diagnostic techniques. Additionally, the laboratory is equipped with a NIKON metallurgical microscope with DCI capability and a color CCD camera.
• Ultrasonic Equipment: (a) a high voltage pulser (AVB2-TE-C, 200V peak-to-peak) generating one cycle of a rectangular wave with an adjustable period is used to drive the transducer; (b) The receiving circuit is constructed with a commercial expander and limiter (DEX-3 and DL-1) to protect receiving circuitry from high voltages required for transmission; (c) The received RF echoes are amplified with a 30 dB amplifiers (Miteq 1114) and filtered with proper bandpass filters (Mini-circuits); (d) A 12-bit A/D converter (CompuScope 12400, 400M samples/s) is employed to digitize the signals; (e) A custom-built positioning assembly incorporating a precision miniature linear motorized stage (MX80L, 1  m resolution) driven by a low noise servo drive (Vix250AH) allows to scan and form an image; (f) A wide range of high frequency transducers with different materials and specifications are available for the system (40 and 73 MHz focused transducer, 45 and 50 MHz unfocused transducer); (g) A commercial IVUS machine is also available for intravascular structure investigation.
• Microscopy Equipment: a) Zeiss Axiovert 200M inverted fluorescence microscope with magnification up 630 and equipped with a motorized filter turret, objectives, and an electronic shutter. It allows multiple imaging functions for bright field, fluorescence, DIC, time-lapse, and Z-stack; b) A cell incubation system for live cells or tissue observation during a long period; c) Apotome from  Carl Zeiss for optical  sectioning in wide-field fluorescence microscopy to achieve back-ground free imaging, especially for thick tissue samples; d) Axiovison software for image acquisition and processing, which enables the automatic record of multi-channel, Z-stack, and time-lapse images.

Imaging equipment

• Mini-EXPLORER I: The mini-EXPLORER I PET scanner is built for non-human primate imaging. It has a ring diameter of 43.5 cm and an axial length of 45.7 cm, consisting of 8 rings and 192 detectors. These Siemens detectors are essentially the same as those in the Siemens mCT clinical scanner. The average timing resolution is ~600 ps. The reconstructed spatial resolution is ~3.0 mm at the center of the FOV. The NU-2 total sensitivity is 5.0% and the peak sensitivity at the center of the FOV is ~15%. This measured sensitivity is 5 times that of the Siemens mCT scanner.
• Pi-PET brain scanner (Brain Biosciences, run by the Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging): Commercial high-resolution, portable Positron Emission Tomography (PET) device with a 22 cm bore diameter and a scanning field-of-view of 8.5 cm with a single position of the detectors and up to 22.5 cm with detector translation. The spatial resolution is 2.0 mm with a maximum likelihood expectation maximization method and the timing window is 4 ns. A 68Ge source is available for transmission scanning for attenuation correction. This system is dedicated for non-human primate brain imaging.
• GE Discovery 610 PET/CT scanner (General Electric). This is an entry-level clinical PET/CT scanner with a 15 cm field of view and a 16-slcie CT scanner.
• The Center also has ultrasound imaging and bioluminescence imaging equipment on site.

Imaging equipment

• MiniEXPLORER II PET/CT (United Imaging; installed at CIS in a dedicated trailer facility). Mini-II has a ring diameter of 52 cm and axial field of view of 48.3 cm, coupled with a 24-detector row CT scanner. The effective 30 cm field of view is ideal for canine imaging with high sensitivity (52-54 kcps MBq-1) and high spatial resolution (2.6 mm) as well as temporal resolution (409 +/- 39 ps). Average system energy resolution is 11.7% ± 1.5% at 511 keV. A hot lab and animal holding area are present within the facility.
• Pi-PET brain scanner (Brain Biosciences, housed at the California National Primate Research Center): Commercial high-resolution, portable Positron Emission Tomography (PET) device with a 22 cm bore diameter and a scanning field-of-view of 8.5 cm with a single position of the detectors and up to 22.5 cm with detector translation. The spatial resolution is 2.0 mm with a maximum likelihood expectation maximization method and the timing window is 4 ns. A 68Ge source is available for transmission scanning for attenuation correction. This system is primarily used for animal extremity imaging.
• Nuclear medicine room with hot lab, large field-of-view 55 tube gamma camera and dedicated Mirage nuclear medicine processing computer system (Vet Med II, rm. 118)
• GE 16 slice Lightspeed Helical CT scanner (Vet Med II, rm. 171)
• GE 8 Channel Signa 1.5 T MRI unit operating at 16.x (Vet Med II, rm. 169)
• 3 ATL HDI 5000 Ultrasound units with multiple probes (Vet Med II & VMTH, various locations)

Computer

• GE Advantage Workstation with Image Analysis software package version 4.2 (Vet Med II, rm. 171)
• Computer hardware (Multiple PC and MacIntosh computers) and software (Matlab, NIH image, film, Osirix) available for image processing and quantitative image analysis. 
• PACS system for image archival/retrieval including multiple high-resolution dual monitor viewing stations.

Other

• 300 sq ft. laboratory for tissue culture, routine molecular biology assay and light microscopy. (Tupper Hall, rm. 1208).

Additional equipment is available at LLNL, most significantly for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. 

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry instrumentation is located in building 361 in the BBTD Program at LLNL. This 950 sq. ft. space houses a 250 kV NEC Single Stage Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (SSAMS) system with two hybrid ion sources, able to accept samples as either solid graphite or CO2 gas. Attached to each ion source is a copy of our moving wire interface bench, for the analysis of small liquid samples. One bench uses a Hamilton NIMBUS liquid handling robot for the analysis of microliter-sized liquid samples as discrete drops. The other bench accepts the continuous output from a Waters Acquity UPLC H-Class system with a PDA detector. The eluent from the UPLC is split between a Waters Xevo G2 XS QTOF instrument and the moving wire interface bench for the conversion of liquid sample to CO2 for injection into the SSAMS ion source. The SSAMS is controlled with AccelNet, supplied by the manufacturer and operated on a Linux computer. The moving wire interface benches are controlled with in-house developed LabView software, running on a Windows PC.