Environmental and Comparative Genomics - Facilities & Equipment

Dr. Acacia Warren leads a genome mapping effort in shrimp that is branching out into other aquatic species, wildlife, and domestic animals. Supported by the USDA-CREES, Tufts University, the aquaculture industry and private donors, the laboratory has elucidated a great deal of information about the genetics of important traits, including resistance to viral diseases. Also, faculty and staff in this section have studied the complex interactions between aquaculture and the environment. Her well-supported laboratory also provides hands-on training to students interested in applying advanced molecular techniques to their projects.

Laboratory
Three laboratories (rooms 104, 106 and 204), a wet lab (room 104A), a walk-in cold room, and a core facility located in Peabody Research Facility are available to all staff and students at the Environmental and Comparative Genomics section. The laboratory in room 204 is used for PCR work and equipped with UV lights and laminar flow hood. The Peabody Research Facility is equipped with a water purification system (Barnstead NANOpure II).

Wet Lab
The wet lab is used to house live postlarvae and broodstock L. vannamei to be used in several different studies such as determination of LC50 for cadmium (Cd), identifying genes and/or expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and molecular pathways associated with Cd bioaccumulation, among others. The wet lab is located in room 104A at Peabody Research Facility and installed with 9 ft high fiberglass reinforced plastic board on the wall surface, epoxy floor with floor drain, poly vinyl chloride water and vent piping as well as a steel hollow metal door. Two Aquaneering Zebrafish Aquatic systems (9.0-L; Allentown Caging Equipment Inc., Allentown, NJ) are installed in room 104A. The systems are composed of stainless steel rack, durable, self-cleaning tanks, filtration system and sump tank. The on board water delivery and drainage system are easily removable for cleaning and maintainence. The room light is controlled by a timer which can adjust the light and dark cycle according to experiment design. Outside of the wet lab, in room 104, some lab benches provide enough space for experiment preparation. In addition, room 104 is equipped with a fume hood, sinks and standard electrical facilities and a General Electric refrigerator-freezer.

Equipment

• Room 104
• Biomek 3000 (Beckman Coulter Inc.): used for high throughput DNA and RNA extraction on a robotics platform as well as PCR set ups. (Picture)
• Fume hood
• General Electric refrigerator-freezer
• Room 106
• CEQ 8000 (Beckman Coulter Inc.): used for microsatellite analysis and SNP work. (Picture)
• fume hood with constant air exchange
• analytical balance
• horizontal -20°C freezer
• General Electric vertical refrigerator-freezer
• speed vacuum system (with refrigerator trap, vacuum gauge and chemical trap)
• Bio Rad power supplies (200 and 1000 models)
• Eppendorf centrifuge
• Beckman pH meter
• Lab-Line shaker
• VWR heat block
• Precision water bath
• Thermolyne stir plate
• gel drier
• Quasar microwave oven.
• Room 204
• MJ Research Thermocyclers
• General Electric refrigerator-freezers
• VWR heat block
• power supply
• Lab-Line shaker
• Precision water bath
• Thermolyne stir plates
• double cell culture chamber
• Core Facility at Peabody Pavilion
• Beckman L8-M ultracentrifuge for nucleic acid separations
• Sorvall RC5-B centrifuges
• -80°C vertical freezers
• -80°C horizontal freezer
• LKB ultraspectrophotometer
• Labconco freezer-drier
• Kodak automatic developer
• VWR drying oven
• shaker for plasmid preparations
• scintillation counter.