Molecular Core (4th floor Lubbock HSC) | Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
TTUHSC students walking through Lubbock campus courtyard.

TTUHSC Molecular Biology Core Facility

Mission

The TTUHSC Molecular Biology Core Facility provides state-of-the-art instrumentation to support experimental demands in molecular biology, ranging from routine bacterial cell growth, monitoring of mammalian cell growth, advanced approaches for cell transfection, monitoring protein and gene expression, RT-PCR, flow cytometer and cell sorting capabilities, exon amplification and single cell separation for whole genomic analysis. Expertise and advice is available for the design of experiments using these approaches and technologies.

Services and Available Equipment

The Molecular Biology Core Facility has a Meso Scale Discover Sector Imager that uses multi-array approaches enabling the detection of bio-markers in single and multiplex formats. For quantification and analysis of DNA, RNA and proteins we have the ImageQuant LAS 4000 digital imager and the Typhoon FLA 9000 Biomolecular Imager for quantitative imaging of chemiluminescence, fluorescence, and gel documentation. The 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent) it uses microfluidics to run DNA, RNA and proteins samples and replaces agarose gels and SDS-PAGE. The Infinite M1000 PRO quadruple monochromator microplate reader (Tecan) is used to measure UV, VIS absorption, and a variety of fluorescence-based approaches with high spectral resolution. For transfection of cells with DNA or RNA, we have the 4D-Nucleofector Core X/Y (Lonza). For cell growth (mammalian cells in suspension, bacteria and yeast) we have the BioLector MP2 that allows continuous monitoring of growth mass, fluorescence, acid production and oxygen consumption in multi-well format. For analysis of gene expression, micro RNA profiling and non-coding RNA analysis we have the Quant Studio 12K real time PCR (Life Technologies). High throughput target enrichment (exons) and amplicon tagging is performed with Access Array (Fluidigm). The C1 Single Cell auto preparation system (Fluidigm) allows us to study in single cells gene expression and mRNA analysis in a 96 well format. A very simple image cytometric analysis to study apoptosis, cell cycle analysis, cell proliferation, viability assays and cell counting is performed using the Cellometer from Vision Image Cytometry. High resolution microscopy in flow (ImageStream Mark II, Amnis) is used to evaluate microscopically the localization of subcellular proteins with a high throughput approach using fluorescently labeled samples. The BD FACSJazz cell sorter and the BD Accuri C6 flow cytometer allows to perform cell sorting and study many cellular functions including apoptosis, cell cycle, cell proliferation, cell phenotyping. Click here for photos of equipmentClick here for description of equipment.

If you are a TTUHSC user, please click here to see Molecular Biology Core Laboratory Rates for Internal (TTUHSC) users. If you are a Non-TTUHSC user, please  click here to see Molecular Biology Core Laboratory Rates for External (Non-TTUHSC) users.

To see other items of shared equipment at the TTUHSC please click here.

To go to the Image Analysis Core Facility please click here.

Contact Information

Dr. Grozdanov is the managing director of the TTUHSC Core Laboratories, and is associated with the Department of Cell Biology and Biochemistry -  phone (806) 743-4124.  Molecular Biology Core Facility phone (806) 743-4624.  Email molcore@ttuhsc.edu