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.  

Protein/Molecular Biology Lab, Room 334

This room is equipped with an Akta FPLC (Pharmacia) housed in a large chromatography refrigerator, photo gel documentation system, microbalance, PCR thermacycler, -20 °C freezer, microcentrifuge, pH meter, temperature-controlled baths, gel boxes, two under-the-bench refrigerators, two fume hoods, shakers, standing shaker-incubator for large-scale protein preparations, and water purification system.

Synthetic Lab, Room 336

This room is equipped with two fume hoods outfitted with high-quality vacuum Schlenk lines suitable for oxygen-sensitive chemistries, a rotary evaporator, diode array UV-Vis spectrophotometer with temperature controlled cell and stirrer (Agilent), analytical microbalance, three small refrigerators, two ovens, considerable glassware and related lab items. These facilities are excellent for conducting multi-step chemical reactions. 

Peptide Lab, Room 332

This room is equipped with a peptide synthesizer, lyophilizer, Agilent HPLC with diode array detector and fraction collector, and contains a refrigerator and fume hood. 

Imaging Lab, Room 338: Xe Hyperpolarizer

This lab also has facilities for generating hyperpolarized Xe-129.  This includes a 50W IR laser, high pressure optical cell containing Rb, and a high vacuum system. Hyperpolarized Xe-129 is used for NMR/MRI experiments with cryptophane biosensors. 

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.