Training Facilities

 The training faculty reside in twelve departments of the University of Arizona (UA) and Northern Arizona University (NAU). Through these departments the Universities provide research and office space as well as core personnel and facilities. Research space occupied by training faculty exceeds 40,000 square feet, most of which is at the Arizona Health Sciences Center but also includes space on the UA main campus and at NAU.  

Common facilities and equipment available to departments include: cell culture rooms, dark rooms, walk-in freezer and cold rooms, standard molecular biology equipment, autoclaves, X-Ray film developers, Phosphor and Instant Imagers, Imaging Densitometers, and Gel Documentaion equipment, and electronic autoradiography equipment. Facilities for cellular micro-injection, laser capture micro-dissection, bio-imaging (confocal, two photon capture), morphology/histology (paraffin embedding, microtomes, SEM), and animal imaging (ATL duplex color ultrasound, intravascular ultrasound, and radiology equipment to perform angiograms and fluoroscopy). 

The Genomic Research Center (GRC), which provides support to the University research community, has capabilities to manufacture and analyze cDNA microarrays, perform “front-end” protein discovery for subsequent analysis such as protein microsequencing available with the ARL Biotechnology facilities, and provides a biocomputing resource as it pertains to large-scale molecular data. Specialized equipment within the GRC includes a Genome Systems hybridization station, a Virtek ChipWriter microarray printer, an Applied Precision ArrayWorx slide scanner, a MJR Tetrad PCR Engine, and Ciphergen mass spectrometer customized for use with SELDI-chip techonology. The GRC functions as a collaborative entity in which individuals from investigator laboratories perform experiments using Center equipment and under the supervision of Center personnel.

The Arizona Cancer Center and Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Centers make available the following facilities: Transgenic Mouse Core (design of molecular constructs for the development of transgenic mice, preparation of the transgenic mice containing those constructs, detection of the transgenic mice among live-born pups, consultation in the rearing and analysis of the mice); Analytical Core (+/- Electropsray Ionization (ESI) and Atmospheric Pressure Ionization (APCI) on TSQ-7000 and on LCQ, GC-MS, preparative and analytical HPLC, UV-Vis spectroscopy, 1-D and 2-D gel electrophoresis, Matrix-assisted laser desorption time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry, a variety of proteomic procedures and protocols); Experimental Pathology Core which provides Histology Services (paraffin and frozen section histology, equipment for analysis and quantitation of radioactively labeled gels), Imaging Facilities (Electron and Confocal Microscopy and Flow Cytometry), and Digital Light Microscopy, Image Analysis and Measurement Facilities (workstations for the acquisition of digital images from light microscopes which include software for the analysis and measurement of digital images from a variety of sources); Synthetic Chemistry Core which provides consultation, custom syntheses of chemical compounds, and other services; cDNA Microarray Core (provides 5,700 human cDNA microarray slides, can fabricate custom gene microarray slides, and can perform the fluorescent labeling, hybridization, and scanning steps of the cDNA process).  

Also on campus are state-funded Biotechnology Resource Facilities, Electronics Design Facility, Fabrication Facility, and the Prototype Machining and Design Facilities. The Biotechnology Resource Facilities are of particular significance for they provide equipment and trained personnel for: Biological Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Computing Technology (including biostatistics and sequence data-bases), Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting, Imaging Facilities (laser scanning confocal, electron and optical microscopy), Laboratory for Protein Sequence Analysis (protein sequencing, amino acid analyses and mass spectrometry), and the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics and Evolution (specializing in nucleic acid techniques including DNA sequencing and oligo synthesis).  

The Arizona Health Sciences Center and Main Libraries are members of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine founded by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and serves as the designated resource library for Arizona through the Pacific Southwest Regional Medical Library Service. The library contains over 215,000 volumes, over 90,000 monographs, and 2000 current journal subscriptions. The library also maintains electronic subscriptions through Highwire Press, Elsevier Science Direct, Wiley Intersciences, Springer Link, IDEAL, EBSCO Host, Synergy, and Science Direct.

Training Faculty