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 Research Support Facilities The Stowers Institute encourages collaboration and fosters efficiency in research. The Institute’s research support facilities serve both goals. Each facility is headed by an expert in the field who works with research teams across the Institute to offer access to the latest technology and techniques, enabling Stowers scientists to accomplish in days and weeks what would take months and years elsewhere. The Institute’s research support facilities include: Advanced Instrumentation & Physics The Advanced Instrumentation & Physics Facility uses physical methods, including high resolution light microscopy and related optical methods, to support the research of laboratories across the Institute. The Facility team helps researchers by evaluating state-of-the-art techniques, setting up new instrumentation, providing training and education on new methods, and assisting with experiments. The Facility team also performs research to adapt existing methods to meet the evolving needs of Stowers researchers and to develop new measurement and data evaluation approaches. Currently, the Facility team is focusing on improving deep tissue/live animal imaging and low light applications using two photon excitation and improved detector technology. To maximize information from each photon collected, the team establishes second harmonic and fluorescence-lifetime imaging. To measure local diffusion constants of proteins, their concentrations, and interactions in the test tube as well as in living cells, the Facility team uses fluctuation-based methods such as fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Technology The Advanced Instrumentation Facility and the Imaging Facility share their equipment. Advanced Instrumentation & Physics research website Bioinformatics The Bioinformatics Center analyzes sequence, structure, function, and evolution of biopolymers; numerical information coming from genome-wide measurements, such as gene expression profiling and protein-protein interactions; flow cytometry and optical microscopy data. We also provide advice on statistical planning and analysis of experiments, on mathematical modeling, and help users to organize their laboratory records. More details on the research and software development projects of the Bioinformatics Center are available at their Web page. Technology The Bioinformatics Center operates several Linux clusters and a myriad of programs, packages, and programming environments for analysis of biological data. Cytometry The Cytometry Facility is a state-of-the-art flow cytometry laboratory that specializes in the identification and isolation of rare target cell populations and the use of cytometric tools for studies of developmental biology. In doing so, the Facility is dedicated to becoming a valuable extension of the Stowers scientific laboratories for the skilled application of cytometric tools toward target projects and advancement of technologies. Technology The Cytometry Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Drosophila Stock Facility maintains an inventory of over 2200 unique Drosophila genotypes that are immediately available for researchers at the Institute. In addition to selected deletion kits obtained from the Bloomington Stock Center, the Facility maintains selected genotypes from Drosophila research programs at the Institute to reduce the time and effort researchers must spend to obtain healthy stocks. The Facility also prepares and delivers both syrup-based and molasses-based fly food for Drosophila research programs at the Institute. Technology The Drosophila Stock Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Histology/Electron Microscopy Facility is a full-service in-house laboratory dedicated to providing the highest quality histology services. The Facility provides paraffin microtomy, cryotomy, vibratome sectioning, and histochemical staining. It also offers a large repertoire of immunostaining protocols for adaptation to individual antibodies and sample types. The Facility staff routinely performs in situ hybridization on whole mount and slide-mounted samples. Using plastic resins (methacrylates), the Facility can section samples as thin as two microns, or section undecalcified bone if necessary for calcium stains or enzyme histochemistry. If ultra-thin sectioning and electron microscopy are needed, the staff can process the samples either by routine chemical fixation or high-pressure freezing and freeze-substitution methods and provide stained grids for subsequent imaging. For researchers wanting to learn how to section or stain their own material, the Facility can provide successful protocols and instruction on any of its common-use equipment. Technology The Histology/Electron Microscopy Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Imaging Center team is committed to ensuring that Institute members receive the highest quality imaging and image analysis support in their research. The team strives to balance new technology development with service to Institute members in advanced optical imaging equipment, training, and expertise. The Center maintains conventional wide field, confocal, and 2-photon microscope configurations. These systems have components to perform fluorescence lifetime, multispectral imaging, and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. The Center team has assembled a collection of fluorescent markers and expertise to assist with experiments in fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), photoactivation, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), and fluorescence loss in photobleaching (FLIP). To address needs in image processing and analysis, the Center team has configured multiple workstations with state-of-the-art software capable of performing 3D and 4D visualization of data and quantitative measurements. The Center team provides individual microscope training and image processing tutorials as well as project consultation. The Center team consists of research technicians and Ph.D.-level scientists with a variety of backgrounds, including biology, neuroscience, engineering, physics, and applied mathematics. Technology The Imaging Center has a wide array of equipment, including:
The Laboratory Animal Services (LAS) Facility provides the Institute’s research staff with the highest quality laboratory animal care and support services using state-of-the-art equipment, advanced technology, and a progressive staff in a premier animal facility. The management of the LAS Facility ensures all housing, husbandry practices, and veterinary care for the animals are in compliance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, Animal Welfare Act and its amendments, and the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, as well as all other institutional, state, and local regulations. The Facility is designed to maintain animal projects under rigorous barrier conditions, and every effort is made to limit the introduction of undesirable pathogens which may impact the integrity and reproducibility of the research data. High standards of animal health and welfare are maintained and regularly monitored and examined by federal agencies and local ethics committees. Technology The LAS Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Media Preparation Facility serves to reduce the time and labor researchers must spend preparing reagents and growth media necessary for their various projects. Commonly used reagents such as Tris buffers and Luria broth are kept in stock to be used as needed by Institute researchers. The Facility prepares media used in larger volumes, such as for tissue culture and a variety of media plates poured to order. Technology The Media Preparation Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Microarray group includes research specialists and bioinformaticists interested in genomics and the application of novel technology and data analysis methods to high throughput investigations. The Facility synthesizes and uses spotted DNA microarrays for a variety of organisms including human, mouse, chicken, fly, sea urchin, and yeast. The Microarray team has extensive experience designing novel genome sets and tiling elements for measuring both gene expression and chromatin immunoprecipitation. The team uses a custom-built robot capable of producing 260 slides at a time. Such efficiency in array production ensures that researchers have unfettered access to DNA microarrays. The state-of-the-art Facility is fully equipped for analysis using commercially available Affymetrix GeneChips, including a fluidics station and high-density GeneChip scanner. Technology The Microarray Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Molecular Biology Facility supports investigators in their research endeavors by providing high quality services, collaborative project potential and access to state of the art technology. Current routine services include DNA sequencing, site-directed mutagenesis, riboprobe synthesis, plasmid preps and distributing clones/vectors from our in house collections. We also support real time quantitative PCR through instrument training, troubleshooting and experimental design. We utilize liquid handling and colony manipulation robots to automate many of our services and improve quality. In addition we provide automation expertise and collaborate with researchers on custom automation projects. Examples of collaborative automation projects include large scale yeast synthetic lethal screens and generation of a histone alanine scanning library. Recent technology acquired by the facility include a Caliper labchip90 automated electrophoresis system and a next generation sequencer (Illumina/Solexa Genome analyzer). Applications we are developing on our Illumina genome analyzer in collaboration with Bioinformatics and microarray include digital expression profiling, ChIP sequencing, whole genome sequencing and targeted re-sequencing. Technology The Molecular Biology Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Proteomics Center implements a chromatography-based proteomic approach known as mutlidimensional protein identification technology (MudPIT). Typical collaborations include analyzing complex protein mixtures to determine comprehensively members of multiprotein complexes or to identify proteins localized to specific subcellular compartments. More in-depth analyses can be undertaken to find posttranslational modifications in proteins of interest. The Center team consists of masters- and doctoral-level scientists with backgrounds ranging from biochemistry to physics. The Center works closely with the Bioinformatics Center on computational analysis of mass spectrometry data and relies on the Information Technology team for cluster maintenance and large-capacity data storage. More details on the projects in the Center are available at their Web page. Technology The Proteomics Center uses the following equipment in its work:
The Reptiles & Aquatics Facility provides the Institute’s research staff with the highest quality laboratory animal care and support services for non-mammalian species. Specialized husbandry is provided for a wide variety of animals. Species currently worked with include:
Technology The Reptile and Aquatics Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
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