Life Sciences Research Centers:

The study of the life sciences at Brandeis University is enhanced by the work that is being done at four outstanding research centers.

Research in the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory spans the full spectrum of topics covering the effects varying force environments have on the neural control of movement, posture, and perceived orientation of the human body.

The National Center for Behavioral Genomics is focused on understanding brain function and behavior. The overarching strategy is to apply information from the human genome project as well as other advances in genomics-genetics to molecular, cellular, and systems neuroscience.

The Benjamin and Mae Volen National Center for Complex Systems is comprised of an interdiscipliary group of faculty members whose focus is the study of the brain and intelligence. The scientific analysis f the brain includes the cellular and molecular levels to the cognitive and computational.

The Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center was formed over 25 years ago with the purpose of bringing together world renowned scientists from a wide range of disciplines in order to advance the study of structural biology, genetics and immunology.

The Sloan-Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience trains predoctoral students and postdoctoral researchers who possess strong analytical and computational backgrounds to apply those skills to the study of neuroscience. The faculty members that make up the Sloan-Swartz Center seek to apply experimental and theoretical approaches in the study of the brain and its functions.

Research Facilities

• Brandeis Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facilities (BrUNMR). The departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry support a state-of-the-art nuclear magnetic resonance facility for use in all aspects of chemical and biochemical research. The facilities are open to all members of the Brandeis research community who need NMR for their work. The facility consists of 400, 500, 600 and 800 MHz solution state NMR spectrometers. The Varian Inova 400 is primarily reserved as a walk-up instrument for chemistry researchers studying small molecules in solution. The Varian Inova 500 and 600 spectrometers are generally used by Brandeis graduate students, postdocs and faculty for the characterization of macromolecular structure and function and are scheduled on a weekly basis. The new Bruker Avance 800 spectrometer is available to all NIH-funded researchers.
  
  
• CLEM-Facility for Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy. This facility provides an integrated set of instruments that will allow investigators to perform Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy (CLEM) studies, enabling a series of experiments to study the functional organization of cells that were previously not feasible. The facility includes instrumentation for modern confocal microscopy, rapid freezing, freeze-substitution and frozen-hydrated sectioning. A new generation of scientists will be trained to pursue innovative approaches in cell biology and neurobiology.
  
  
• Computational Core Facility. Brandeis has a High Performance Computing cluster which runs ROCKS, a linux distribution (based on RedHat) specifically designed for clusters. The cluster has 52 nodes each with 2 quad-Core Xeon processors and 15 dual Opteron nodes, for total of 446 effective CPUs. Users gain guaranteed access to the facility by contributing computing and storage nodes.
  
  
• The Confocal Imaging Lab. This lab provides the Confocal Microscope, Macintosh computers, graphics software, printers, flatbed and slide scanners and photographic equipment for use by faculty and students.
  
  
• Electron Microscope Facility. The structural biology group at Brandeis owns and operates a superb state-of-the art electron microscope facility in the Rosenstiel Center (first floor). The facility includes four transmission electron microscopes: 1) For tomographic data collection, a Tecnai F30 TEM with field emission gun (FEG) electron source, a Gatan Ultrascan 4kx4k CCD camera, a eucentric "CompuStage", Gatan Imaging energy filter (GIF) equipped with Ultrascan 2kx2k post- GIF camera. SerialEM, software for tomographic data acquisition, has been installed and calibrated for both 200 and 300keV; the instrument is ideally suited for cellular cryo-electron tomography. 2) A Philips CM12, and 3) a Philips 420T both operated at 120keV and equipped with LaB6 electron source; both instruments are used for negative stain data collection and cryo sample evaluation. 4) A FEI Morgagni, operated at 80kV, is used for screening grids of negative stain single particle and plastic sections. The microscopy suite was carefully built to minimize vibration, and all rooms, including the preparation room, are temperature and humidity controlled. Also available are ambient temperature and cryo-holders, two plunge freezers (one Vitrobot), an Edwards carbon evaporator, and two glow discharge units.
  
  
• Genomics/Proteomics Core Facility. The facility contains all the hardware and software required for processing Affymetrix GeneChips; an EPICS ALTRA Flow Cytometer capable of sorting at 15,000 events/sec and achieving 99% purity; and an Illumina Genome Analyzer II, a high-throughput sequencing system that generates >3 Gb of data per run.
  
  
• Mass Spectrometry Facility. The facility contains a Bruker Q-FTMS-2 apex-Qe 9.4T Fourier transform mass spectrometer, a Bruker High Capacity Trap Quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer, a Bruker Microflex LRF20 MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer, an Eksigent 2D-HPLC System, a Proteineer FC spotting robot for LC-MALDI, a Proteineer Digest and Prep station Robot, and a Cryotome and Ultracryotome for MALDI imaging tissue sectioning. This facility also contains computer clusters and servers with necessary databases and software.
  
  
• Micro-fluidic Fabrication Facility. NSF-MRI funded facility contains a contact mask alignment and photoresist exposure system, fume hoods, spin coating station, PDMS mixer and degasser, PDMS bonding equipment (oven, AC oxygen plasma), PDMS hole punch and stereo zoom microscope. The equipment is housed in a 250 sq. ft. class 10,000 clean room.
  
  
• Transgenic Mouse and Viral Transfection Facility. The facility currently contains all the equipment, reagents and expertise needed to produce transgenic and knockout mice via pronuclear injection, blastocyst injection and ES cell culture and gene targeting. It also contains everything needed for production of lentiviral vectors and subsequent transfection of neurons in the brain or in culture, as well as transfection of embryos for production of lentiviral transgenic animals. The following equipment is available in the facility for lentivirus production, blastocyst injection and ES cell culture: biosafety cabinets, stacked tissue culture incubators, Sorvall ultracentrifuge, inverted microscope for viewing tissue cultures, Eppendorf table-top centrifuge, microcentrifuge, liquid nitrogen vessel, Revco -80 freezer, water bath, analytical balance, MilliQ water polisher, microforge, microgrinder, dissecting microscopes, fiber optic light sources, and a Narishige microinjection set-up.
  
  
• X-Ray Structure Determination Facility. The facility consists of a Nonius CAD-4 linear diffractometer and a Bruker-Nonius Kappa Apex II CCD instrument, equipped with Mo and Cu radiation sources.

Brandeis Libraries

• Brandeis University Libraries website

Computer Resources

Technical Support:

• UNet/Help Desk
• University-wide computer resources are provided by Information Technology Services
• Technology Support Forum - detailed FAQ's dealing with Brandeis technology

Computer Classrooms and Labs:

General information concerning computer classrooms and labs in use at Brandeis University is available online.