Gena Braun

Forms

Contact:

email: Gena Braun
phone: 519-884-0710
ext: 2361

Multi-user Instruments

User guidelines and operating procedures for multi-user research instruments in the Faculty of Science. All users must receive training before using any of the instruments listed below.

Steris Century
Prevacuum Sterilizer

	User Guidelines and SOP	Comprehensive Manual available in SR410	Useful Links
	This autoclave is designed for fast, efficient sterilization of heat- and moisture-stable materials including media, glassware, biological waste, and soils. Various liquid, gravity, and prevacuum cycles are available.

Miele Glassware
Washer

	User Guidelines	Comprehensive Manual	Useful Links
	The Miele general purpose laboratory washer is equipped with three wash routines, and can accommodate a variety of baskets and inserts specifically designed for laboratory glassware. This includes an injection basket for difficult to clean narrow mouth glassware and standard baskets for wide mouthed items. The wash and DI rinse water are heated to 70ºC to ensure proper removal of both the contaminant and detergent residues.

Milli-Q Synthesis
A10 Ultrapure
Water System

User Guidelines
and SOP

Comprehensive
Manual

Useful
Links

The Milli-Q A-10 Synthesis provides high quality ultrapure water for applications such as HPLC, IC, solid-phase extraction and UV spectroscopy. Milli-Q water has a resistivity of 18.2 Mohms.cm @ 25ºC, and less than 10 ppb TOC. The main components of the Milli-Q system are:

Q-Gard purification pack for the removal of organics and ions from the building DI feedwater.
Quantum EX cartridge for additional organic removal to trace levels using mixed acid and base resins and activated carbon.
Millipak 0.22 micrometer membrane filter.
UV lamp to destroy organic molecules and reduce TOC levels to < 10 ppb.
Pyrogard 5000 ultrafiltration cartridge for the production of pyrogen- and nuclease-free ultrapure water (<0.001 EU/ml).

Cary Eclipse
Fluorescence
Spectrometer

	User Guidelines and SOP	Comprehensive Manual available in SR416	Useful Links
	The Cary Eclipse can be used to measure sample fluorescence using the following software applications: Advanced Reads: Set up methods to read multiple samples in a single run. Concentration: Perform quantitative analysis with a multi-standard calibration curve. Kinetics: Measure the increase or decrease in emission intensity as a function of time. Lifetimes: Measure phosphorescence lifetimes or delayed-fluorescence lifetimes. Scan: scan the emission or excitation spectrum of samples across a wavelength or wavenumber range. Simple Reads: Measure a sample at a single wavelength Thermal: Perform thermal analyses on DNA using the 4-position multicell peltier accessory.

Cary 50 UV-Vis
Spectrometer

User Guidelines
and SOP

Comprehensive
Manual

Useful
Links

The Cary 50 can be used to measure the absorbance / transmittance/ optical density of a variety of samples using the following software applications:

Advanced Reads: set up methods and read multiple samples in a single run.
Concentration: Perform quantitative analysis with a multi-standard calibration curve.
Color: Measure and calculate the transmitted or reflected colour of samples.
Enzyme Kinetics: Obtain kinetics results by applying the Michaelis-Menten equation.
Kinetics: Time-based single or multicell measurements.
RNA / DNA: Collect data and calculate the amount, type and purity of nucleic acid samples.
Scan: For wavelength/wavenumber scanning using excitation, emission, and synchronous scanning.
Scanning Kinetics: Determine kinetics curves from a set of absorption spectra.
Simple Reads: Measure absorbance readings at a single wavelength.
Thermal: Temperature based single or multicell measurements, typically DNA melts.

Beckman LS6500 Scintillation Counter

	User Guidelines and SOP	Comprehensive Manual available in SR312	Useful Links
	The scintillation counter is used for measuring radioactivity in solid or liquids samples. Liquid samples can be prepared in either in the standard 20 ml glass or plastic vial or in a 6 ml miniature vial. In addition the LS6500 can be used for single photon counting and dual label studies.

Beckman Avanti
J30I Centrifuge

	User Guidelines and SOP	Comprehensive Manual	Useful Links
	The Avanti J-30I centrifuge can be used to achieve very fast centrifugal separations. Swinging-bucket and fixed-angle rotors provide maximum separation forces in excess of 100,000 x g at speeds up to 30,000 rpm. Samples can be run in 50 ml conical tubes or 500 ml centrifuge bottles.

Beckman
Optima TLX
Ultra-centrifuge

	User Guidelines and SOP	Comprehensive Manual	Rotor Speed Table
	The Optima TLX ultracentrifuge is equiped with swinging-bucket and fixed-angle rotors and can achieve separations at forces in excess of 500,000 x g at speeds up to 100,000 rpm. Samples from 3 to 8 ml can be run in this centrifuge.

Eppendorf 5804R Centrifuge

	User Guidelines and SOP	Comprehensive Manual available in N1038	Useful Links
	The Eppendorf 5804R refrigerated centrifuge is equipped with an A-4-44 rotor and adaptors for 1.5 ml and 15 ml tubes. The maximum speed for this rotor is 5000 rpm (4500 x g).

Labconco
Freeze Drier

	User Guidelines and SOP	Comprehensive Manual	Useful Links
	The freeze drier can be used to lyophilize a variety of sample types and volumes for shipping or storage. Compared to other types of freezing, lyophilization causes less damage and allows for the retention of structure and some viability.

Centrivap
Centrifugal
Concentrator

	User Guidelines and SOP	Comprehensive Manual	Useful Links
	The Centrivap centrifugal concentrator uses centrifugal force, heat and vacuum to remove water from multiple small samples.

AMINCO
French Press

	User Guidelines and SOP	Comprehensive Manual	Useful Links
	The French pressure cell can be used for cell disruption or subcellular fractionation, enzyme preparation, bacterial and plant tissue degradation, and recovery of intercellular proteins and nucleic acid.

Glass Contour
Dry Solvent
Dispensing System

	User Guidelines	Comprehensive Manual Available in SR419	Useful Links
	The dry solvent system provides a safe alternative to solvent distillation, and produces dry high purity solvents on demand. Solvents pass through activated columns under low pressure to remove trace impurities and water. The dry solvents currently available are tetrahydrofuran, ether, dichloromethane, toluene, hexane, acetonitrile, dimethylformamide, and methanol. Solvent water content is verified on a monthly basis using a KF titrator.

Cold Room

	The cold room is maintained a 4ºC and intended primarily for running experiments at low temperatures.

Insta-Ice 475
Dry Ice
Block Maker

	The 475 Ice block maker can be used to produce small dry ice blocks, up to 8.5 x 6.7 x 18.4 cm, for organic chemistry applications or shipment of sensitive samples.

DNR 303 Bio-Imaging System

	User Guidelines and SOP	Comprehensive Manual available in SR416	Useful Links
	This gel-doc system can be used for chemiluminescence detection on gels, blots, autoradiographs, and TLC plates. Images are collected using a cooled CCD camera, and viewed on the BIS software. The software can also be used to optimize the image, adjust exposure time, and save protocols. Samples should be 17 cm x 21 cm or smaller

Sartorius SE2

Ultra-Microbalance

http://www.wlu.ca/documents/38477/Microbalance.jpg

User guidelines

Comprehensive Manual

Useful Links

The Sartorius Ultramicrobalance can be used to weigh samples up to 2 g with 0.1 µg readability. These measurements are highly sensitive to temperature changes, static, and evaporation, so care must be taken in sample preparation and weighing.

Bio-Rad VersaDoc

Imaging System

User guidelines

Comprehensive Manual

Useful Links

The VersaDoc system can be used for quantitative imaging of single and multi-color fluorescence, chemiluminescence, chemifluorescence and colorimetric samples. Two cameras (4000 and 5000) are available for imaging with high resolution and high sensitivity respectively. Images are collected using Quantity One software. PDQuest is also installed for 2D gel analysis.