Facilities
The Dmochowski lab has a strong core of instrumentation and facilities. The laboratory covers roughly 1600 square feet, with ample bench space for many graduate students and postdocs. All chemical and biological reagents are cataloged on the networked computer system, with several intra- and internet accessible computers throughout the laboratory. The space is divided into two large rooms (one equipped for protein chemistry/molecular biology, the other for organic/inorganic synthesis) and two smaller rooms (one for peptide synthesis, the other for imaging). In addition, the lab runs an Optical Imaging Center together with the Baumgart group.
Room 360 (Main Lab) | Room 363 | Room 363 |
Room 362 | Room 365 |
Center
for Optical Biomolecular Imaging
This room contains two state-of-the-art confocal microscopes
(FV1000 and FV300, Olympus) and one laser TIRF microscope
(Olympus). The confocal systems have many different lasers,
including 351, 405, 458, 488, 5145, 543, 633, and 748 nm lines, as
well as a Hamamatsu 512x512 EM camera.
General Facilities
Two Beckman ultracentrifuges and three Sorvall centrifuges,
complete with numerous rotors, several -80 °C freezers, an ice
machine, sonicator, and French Press are in the hallway just a few
feet from the labs, and are departmental facilities. Thus,
researchers in the lab have all necessary facilities for doing
molecular biology to generate protein mutants, and for expressing
and purifying proteins in large quantities.
Computer
Dmochowski group members have desktop PCs, a dual process LINUX
box, and access to SGI Origin 2000 and SP3 multiprocessor
computers (see below). We have direct access to the Chemistry
Department Computing Facility containing a multiprocessor SGI plus
an outstanding graphics workstation.
Office
The Dmochowski group is housed in the Chemistry Building (N73) at
UPenn. Group members share a large office with individual desks
that also serves as a library and conference room with projection
capabilities. This room is directly across the hall from the
laboratories.
Other
Center for Cell and
Molecular Biology
Dmochowski lab members have access to all facilities of the Center
for Cell and Molecular Biology, which is part of the UPenn
Chemistry Department. The Center is operated by the Dmochowski and
Meggers groups. This resource center contains a cell culture
facility, fluorescence plate reader for analyzing up to 384
chambers simultaneously, a new HPLC, -80 °C freezer, several
microcentrifuges, and an additional shaker-incubator for growing
several liters of cell cultures.
Glass Shop
This facility, complete with an expert glass blower, maintains the
Schlenk lines and many other glassware items in the lab.
UPenn Mass
Spectroscopy (MS) Facilities
Within the Chemistry building, there is open access to new GC/MS,
LC/MS and electrospray ionization MS instruments. For protein
characterization by MALDI and ESI, protein samples are taken to
two MS facilities in the Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry
at the UPenn Medical School.
Nucleic Acid Facility
This facility is located just down the hall from the PI’s
laboratories, and provides rapid delivery of custom
oligonucleotides.
Circular Dichroism
A CD spectrometer resides nearby in Prof. Feng Gai’s lab.
UPenn EPR Facility
The Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the UPenn Medical
School operates an EPR instrument that is freely available to
members of the Penn community, and is located just a few minutes
from our lab.
UPenn Chemistry NMR
Facility
The Department of Chemistry operates and maintains 12 open-access
NMR machines ranging from 200 to 750 MHz. These instruments are
located throughout the Chemistry Building, all very near our
laboratory.
Xe-129 NMR
A 500 MHz Bruker instrument resides next to the Dmochowski labs,
and has a broadband probe suitable for routine Xe-129 experiments.
Xe-129 studies are done in collaboration with Dr. Ivan Dimitrov,
formerly of the MRI group in the UPenn Radiology Department.
Experiments are conducted with both thermally polarized and
hyperpolarized Xe-129, using the polarizer in Room 338.
UPenn Chemistry
Fluorometers
The department operates two sensitive CCD-cooled fluorometers.
Laser Scanning
Confocal/2-Photon Microscopy Facilities
Several laser scanning microscopy facilities occupy the UPenn
campus, all within a few minutes of the PI’s laboratory.
Bioengineering, the Medical School, and Department of Cell Biology
all have microscopy resources that allow collection of
high-resolution fluorescence images of cells and embryos.
UPenn/NIH Regional
Laser and Biomedical Technology Laboratories (RLBL)
This unique facility offers direct access to many nanosecond,
picosecond, and femtosecond pulsed laser sources, and is
conveniently located within the Chemistry Building. It is possible
to do time-resolved fluorescence and photon-counting measurements
here, as well as in several individual laboratories within the
department.
UPenn LRSM:
Nanoparticle Characterization/Surface Chemistry
The Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter (LRSM) at
the University of Pennsylvania is conveniently located two blocks
from the PI’s labs. There is considerable instrumentation for
characterization of surfaces and nanoparticles (STM, AFM, SEM,
X-ray scattering, electron microscopy.)
Computers
SGI (16-processor and 8-processor) and IBM (32-processor and
16-processor) computers are available at the Center for Molecular
Modeling, housed both within the Chemistry Department and one
block away at the LRSM. These machines are shared with many users.