A major focus of the department is Bioimaging. Several laboratories contain state-of-the-art microscope and computer facilities that permit the capture and analysis of dynamic cellular events. Current studies include dynamic analysis of cell motility using time-lapse videomicroscopy and fluorescent cytoskeletal probes, ratio imaging of intracellular ions, and three-dimensional reconstruction of fluorescent specimens using confocal microscopy. The department is equipped for virtually any method of microscopic examination including confocal microscopy, light microscopy, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, freeze-fracture preparation, and x-ray microscopy. Individual laboratories are also equipped for many techniques including cell culture, electrophoresis, spectrophotometry, microcomputer-assisted image analysis, antibody production and characterization, ultracentrifugation, autoradiography, micromanipulation, stereotaxic surgery, and neurophysiological recordings.
Other resources include university-wide computer facilities, an extensive computer network linking each laboratory within the medical school, a supercomputer-based laboratory for structural biology and modeling, an NMR and PET facility with associated Nuclear Science and Technology Center offering access to its nuclear reactor and isotopes for researchers, an environmental and hyperbaric physiology laboratory, the Ernest Witebsky Center for Immunology, the Center for Applied Molecular Biology and Immunology, and a wealth of research expertise in area institutions. An adjacent animal facility, staffed by full-time veterinarians, offers surgical facilities and provides housing and care for a large number of experimental animals. The seven major units and four branches of the University libraries house over 2 million volumes and offer a computer-based catalog system with Medline/Current Contents searching of biological databases all accessible from laboratory microcomputers.
