Mammalian Cell Culture Facility
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The MPL has a dedicated Mammalian Cell Culture Laboratory equipped with two biosafety level 2 hoods for various cell-based assays such as MTT, anti-inflammatory, RT-PCR, and DRG assays. This laboratory houses different normal, and cancer cell lines obtained from the ATCC for bioactivity screening purposes. Extracts, as well as pure compounds from marine organisms, are tested against an array of cell lines like HCT116 human colon cancer cells, MCF7 human breast cancer cells, HK-2 human normal kidney cells, and HepG2 human hepatoma.
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Calcium Imaging Facility for DRG Assay
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The calcium imaging facility is equipped with an Olympus IX73 microscope, a CoolED pE-340 fura light source, and higher resolution camera to examine disturbances in intracellular calcium caused by active compounds or crude extracts when applied to diverse neurons found in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG).
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Microbiology Facility
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The lab is equipped with four biosafety level 2 hoods to isolate associated bacteria from marine organisms. Large-scale cultures of these bacteria for compound purification can be done using our five temperature-controlled shaking incubators that can handle eight 1L cultures per incubator. Trained personnel also perform in vitro antimicrobial assays against ESKAPE pathogens, MRSA, and biofilm inhibition assays against S. epidermidis.
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Shimadzu Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (LCMS-8040)
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This LCMS system is routinely used for the rapid identification of the molecular weights of pure compounds, quantification of metabolites in crude extracts, and data-dependent MS/MS analysis for dereplication using the GNPS platform.
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High Performance Liquid Chromatography Systems
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The lab has four Shimadzu HPLC-PDA systems routinely used for purification of secondary metabolites from marine organisms. One HPLC system is also equipped with an evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD) for the detection of non-UV absorbing compounds, an automated fraction collector, and autosampler.
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Chemistry Lab
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The lab has different drying equipment for natural products extraction and purification:
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