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Facilities Details
Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology
Facilities within the department include numerous cold rooms; two warm rooms; four darkrooms, two with X-ray film processors; and an oligonucleotide synthesizer. Common-use equipment includes six preparative centrifuges with rotors; two ultracentrifuges with rotors; multiple constant-temperature incubators and bacterial shakers; three gel documentation systems; three Gamma radiation counters and three liquid scintillation counters; and gel dryers, vacuum ovens, and speed vacs with pumps.
Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology
Facilities within the department include numerous cold rooms; two warm rooms; four darkrooms, two with X-ray film processors; and an oligonucleotide synthesizer. Common-use equipment includes six preparative centrifuges with rotors; two ultracentrifuges with rotors; multiple constant-temperature incubators and bacterial shakers; three gel documentation systems; three Gamma radiation counters and three liquid scintillation counters; and gel dryers, vacuum ovens, and speed vacs with pumps.
Within individual labs there are several cell-culture facilities with laminar flow hoods, CO2 incubators, and inverted microscopes with phase; numerous dissecting microscopes and slice preparation setups; several thermal cyclers; electrophoresis and chromatography equipment; and two setups for drosophila microinjection/gene transfer experiments. In addition, labs are equipped with standard molecular biology equipment such as water baths, microfuges, and hybridization ovens, as well as -70°C freezers, -20°C freezers, and refrigerators. Liquid nitrogen and dry ice are supplied on a floor-by-floor basis.
The Picower
Center for Learning and Memory
The Picower Center for Learning and Memory has an automated, high-density
microarraying device for nucleic acid hybridization screening, which
is used to screen large numbers of mouse cDNA clones (>10,000
pre-selected clones) for identification of genes that are active
in specific brain regions. Manufactured by Intelligent Automation
Systems (IAS) of Cambridge, Massachusetts, the device consists of
four main subsystems: a Robotic Manipulator Subsystem, a Workdeck
Subsystem, an MTP Storage Subsystem, and an Electrical Controls
Subsystem. The entire unit resides on its own frame and base plate.
In addition, the system includes specially designed chambers for
incubation steps after arraying.
The Center for Learning and Memory also has a two-photon system, as well as an imaging system consisting of two lasers, a Bio-Rad MRC-1024/2-P multiphoton system, and an Olympus BX50 microscope. The system permits localized excitation and large photon collection for long-lasting cell imaging, without the problems of photo bleaching and photo toxicity that normally occur with conventional confocal microscopy. In addition, the use of infrared excitation provides much deeper light penetration into the tissue. Monitoring of various indicators, such as calcium changes, permits the imaging of cortical cells in living brain tissue among mice with genetically engineered mutations.
Neuroanatomy
A confocal laser-scanning microscope (Bio-Rad 1024 ES) is available for common use; numerous research quality microscopes are also available, including Leitz, Zeiss, and Nikon photomicroscopes equipped for brightfield, darkfield, and fluorescent examination. Our extensive neurohistology facilities offer sliding microtomes, rotary microtomes, vibratomes, and cryostats; facilities for neonatal and embryonic rodent surgery; and several rooms equipped for adult hamster, rat, cat, and monkey surgeries and perfusions.
Other neuroanatomy facilities include Zeiss operating microscopes; common-use darkroom facilities, as well as darkroom facilities in individual laboratories; and several data-analysis rooms for drawing, charting, and quantitative work, which are equipped with macroprojectors and numerous brightfield and darkfield microscopes. Several computer imaging systems with microscope and digital cameras are available for morphometry, autoradiographic quantitative densitometry, image processing, and statistical analysis.
Neuropharmacology
BCS maintains extensive facilities for biochemical assays; in vivo microdialysis setups; growth and maintenance of cell cultures (standard cell lines, cells cloned in our laboratories and elsewhere, and short-term cultures of fetal rat astrocytes and neurons); isolated superfused brain-slice preparations; and access to human brain and body fluid samples.
Neurophysiology
The program offers numerous fully equipped laboratory setups for behavioral and electrophysiological work; equipment for multi-electrode recording from awake-behaving animals; a visual stimulation system; numerous Helmholtz coils, oscilloscopes, and impedance testers; an Eye Coil Calibration board; and separate rooms for animal behavioral studies that feature environmental controls and video recording equipment.
Tetrode Array Recording Facility
This state-of-the-art facility provides the capability to monitor behavior while recording the neural activity of large ensembles of individual cells (up to 150 simultaneously) from animals engaged in active behavior. Six separate experimental setups currently enable 28- to 72-channel recording from multiple brain regions of freely behaving wild-type and genetic-mutant mice and rats.
An adjustable tetrode array microdrive, developed by MIT Professor Matthew Wilson, produces the maximum single-cell activity yield of any currently available in vivo recording technique. Coupled with the availability of genetically engineered, learning-deficient mutant mice from several collaborating laboratories, the microdrive provides a truly unique opportunity to study the mechanisms and function of specific cell populations and brain regions involved in mammalian learning and memory. Several dozen scientists currently utilize the facility for a wide battery of behavioral neurophysiology experiments.
Computation
The department has more than 400 computers, printers, and other network devices on the MIT network, all of which can access the Internet. Over 250 of these systems are on a 100 Mbps switched Ethernet network, while the remaining systems are on a 10 Mbps network and will be migrated to 100 Mbps (or better) in the next few years.
At last count, the department's computing resources include 62 Sun workstations (including several dual-processor Ultra 2s, and two Sun file servers with RAID for approximately 200 Gbyte of total storage); 16 Silicon Graphics workstations (including an eight-processor R10000-based Onyx2 with an infiniteReality graphics engine); 60 Linux boxes (including three Beowulf clusters for parallel computations); and over 200 IBM-compatible PCs and Apple Macintoshes. Typical software available on these machines includes: browsing and authoring software for the World Wide Web (Mosaic, Netscape, and Explorer); various email packages; word processing tools such as LaTeX, IslandWrite/Paint/Draw, and MS Office; and general mathematics software like Mathematica, Matlab, S-Plus, and Maple.
In addition, many laboratories have various PCs and minicomputers for data acquisition and recording purposes. Other general items such as Network Appliance file servers, additional Beowulf clusters, LISP machines, and network cameras – as well as research tools such as haptic feedback systems, voice and face recognition systems, and various robots Ð are available through collaborative arrangements with the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the MIT Media Lab.
Finally, the department maintains an Athena Cluster in building E25, consisting of seven Sun Ultra 5 workstations, which is reserved exclusively for student use. Athena, MIT's campus-wide educational computing network, includes a vast array of general and specialized software, including a large selection of commercial software licensed for the entire campus.
