Medical Sciences Building

The department of microbiology, immunology, and molecular genetics is located in the Medical Sciences Building of the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center. While most of the faculty are located on the third and fourth floor of the Medical Sciences Building, other faculty members have laboratories adjacent to the medical center in the Combs Cancer Research Building.

The department has well equipped laboratories, a diversity of modern research equipment, and instrumentation that is capable of supporting all of the current research programs. A Flow Analysis, Cell Sorting, and Immune Monitoring Facility is operated by the department as a core laboratory and houses two BD LSR II analyzers, an iCyt Synergy sorter system, and a MACSQuant VYB analyzer with up-to-date data acquisition and analysis software. The facility also houses an AutoMACS Pro Separator for magnetic bead applications. This laboratory is currently equipped for multi-parameter immunofluorescent analysis, cell sorting, single cell cloning into microwell plates, cell cycle analysis, and a variety of biochemical and function analyses using flow cytometric approaches.

Common equipment available to all researchers includes analytic and preparative ultracentrifuges, quantitative PCR, liquid scintillation counters, gamma spectrometers, large scale preparative cell and tissue culture facilities, and protein purification facilities. The department has a 137Cs irradiator for small animals and cells, equipment for elutriation centrifugation, an image analysis and a Molecular Dynamics Phosphoimager. The department also contains cold rooms, a dark room, ultra-low and low temperature freezers, fluorescent microscopes equipped for image analysis, recording spectrophotomers, electrophoresis equipment for protein, RNA, and DNA analysis, as well as DNA sequencing and high pressure liquid chromatographs. Also available are mechanical and electronic shops for the repair and construction of instruments, graphic services for artwork and preparation of slides and posters, and central animal facilities for maintenance and procurement of research animals. Offered throughout the department are shared computers which may be used by students, as well as computers associated with much of the instrumentation.

Students routinely carry out projects that entail DNA transfection, flow cytometry, somatic cell genetics, gene cloning, DNA sequencing, analysis of oncogenes, cell cycle analysis, and gene transfer.