The facility is a “user” facility with a dedicated Technical Officer to manage, maintain and organize renewal of equipment, and train users.
The facility houses comprehensive equipment for small-, medium- and large-scale protein production using in vivo expression and cell-free (in vitro) protein synthesis, as well as instrumentation for sample preparation and storage of biomolecules for structural studies. The facility further complements other analytical facilities in RSC (such as JMSF and MRF) with state-of-the-art instrumentation for (bio-) polymer characterization.
Equipment
Protein production:
- Large scale recombinant protein expressing: Sartorius Biostat C Plus fermenter
- Medium scale protein production: INFORS HT fermenters and New Brunswick incubators Small scale 96-well high throughput protein production: Heidolf microplate format incubators
- Post-express cell harvesting: large-volume VWR and Beckman centrifuges and bench mounted 96-well plate Eppendorf and Beckman centrifuges
- Cell lysis: Emulsiflex homogenisers (C5 and B15) and sonicator, and French press.
- Protein purification: 7 GE/Cytiva FPLC systems
Protein Characterization:
Various high-value biophysical protein characterization technologies, including:
- Formulatrix microfluidics protein crystallization facility
- Chirascan CD spectrophotometer
- DAWN Multi Angle Laser Light Scattering
- Stopped-flow UV/Vis spectroscopy
- 3x 96-well plate readers
