Zhu Lab Equipment

Research Articles

Dr. Zhu’s laboratory is equipped with the following major equipment to support our daily operation. Additional major equipment is available at CNRC core facilities for free use and other BCM core facilities for fee-for-use.
 

  1. A Carl Zeiss Lightsheet 7 microscope: Mesoscale Imaging System for cleared specimen, with four lasers, Fluar 2.5x, 5x Clr, 20x Clr (for Refractive Indices: 1.38, 1.46, and 1.53) detection optics, equipped with two storage and data analysis PCs, ZEN and arivis Vision4D for 3D Visualization and Data Analysis.
  2. An Oxford nanoimager (ONI): super-resolution microscope (dSTORM/PALM), with four powerful lasers. It can operate as an epifluorescence, TIRF, HILO, or confocal microscope. It resolves structures down to 20 nm, for fixed samples or live samples. It is configured with a heating module and microfluidics.
  3. Agilent Seahorse XFe24 analyzer with Cytation1 normalization solution.
  4. A microplate reader (BMG) with two injectors, capable of kinetic measurement of absorbance, luminescence, and fluorescence. The plate reader also has an LVis plate that can simultaneously measure 16 X 2ul samples of nucleic acid concentration or protein concentration.
  5. A QuantStudio5 qPCR instrument with 384-well block.
  6. A ProFlex 3 x 32-well PCR System and two miniAmp PCR instruments.
  7. A Qiagen TissueLyser with 2 X 24 block and a Miltenyi Biotec gentleMAC cell dissociator. 
  8. A motor-driven tissue grinder suitable for sub-cellular fractionation.
  9. A fluorescent stereomicroscope for dissecting and an Olympus fluorescent stereomicroscope for imaging.
  10. A liver perfusion setup for primary cell isolation placed in a shared procedure room adjacent to the lab.
  11. Centrifuges: A temperature-controlled Eppendorf 8510 R, two temperature-controlled Eppendorf 5425 R, two regular desktop centrifuges (One Eppendorf 5425 and One Thermo Fisher).
  12. Additional molecular biology equipment in the laboratory includes Integra programmable multichannel pipettes, precision balance, a pH meter, liquid handling pipettes (single channel, multichannel, and programmable), a shaking water bath, a refrigerator, two -20°C freezers, a -80°C freezer, and a shared gel imaging system.
  13. One liquid nitrogen cell storage unit and two cell incubators, including one that is available for hypoxia study, placed in a designated cell culture room.
  14. A rodent environmental chamber with a temperature setting (6-42 °C) capable of housing up to 72 cages of mice, placed in the animal facility.