A short list of facilities available. Please contact us for more information.
The Center has a full service tissue culture facility. We have seven double-door CO2 incubators, horizontal and vertical (containment) HEPA filtered hoods, bioreactor, cold-room media storage, ultra-low freezers (-150 degrees C), controlled environment growth chambers (lighted for plant tissue culture work), and experience in the culture of most mammalian cell lines (monolayer, micro-carrier bead in up to 8 liter flasks, and hollow fiber), plant cell lines, and other more exotic cells such as venom gland cells from reptiles and insects.
The Center has a modest biomechanics laboratory and performs comprehensive and tensile testing on a variety of materials. We have extensive experience in biomechanical testing of various bone products, dura mater, skin, and cardiovascular tissues, as well as deformable plastics and biopolymers. Through affiliations with the Engineering School at Old Dominion University, the Center is also able to provide access to modern mechanical testing facilities should it's laboratory prove inadequate for a given project.
The Center has a full-service Separations Laboratory which maintains and operates Gas-Liquid Chromatographs (noncapillary and capillary), GC Mass Spectrometry Chromatograph, Fast Protein Liquid Chromatograph (FPLC), High Performance Liquid Chromatographs (HPLC), one and two dimensional electrophoresis, Isoelectric Focusing (IEF), and a full array of low pressure liquid chromatographic capabilities. We have experience in protein, nucleic acid, and carbohydrate separations and a strong research group involved in separations analysis.
The Center has considerable experience in the preparation, testing, and use of "synthetic tissues" (primarily autograft) for clinical applications, i.e. cultured epithelium for burn treatment, various bone products, collagen-based biomaterials, and cryopreserved tissues. Contract and research affiliations with Tissue Banks and Organ Procurement Agencies worldwide offers a unique opportunity for access to human tissues.
The Center has a complete monoclonal antibody laboratory and extensive development experience in the production of directed monoclonal antibodies. The laboratory-director has twenty-five years experience in clinical chemistry and is Board Certified in clinical chemistry.
The Center has a full-service electron microscope facility, possessing both transmission and scanning electron microscopes, KEVEX Electron Microanalysis capabilities on the TEM system, a full function photographic facility, and a full-time Director.
The Center includes a full-service, NIH approved animal facility, capable of maintaining a wide variety of small animals. This facility includes a working population of athymic nude mice permitting assessment of biomaterials in the absence of immunological responses. Through its affiliation with the Eastern Virginia Medical School, the Center can also offer access to additional animal facilities equipped with modern surgical facilities.
The Center includes a full-service media and reagents preparations facility. The Facility contains sterilization (autoclaves), dishwashing, and large volume solutions preparation capabilities, and is staffed by a Director and two full-time technicians.
The Center has a full-service image analysis laboratory capable of capturing photographic and video images and analyzing for gray-scale images, enhancing photographic images, quantitating gray-scale images, and producing publication quality color printouts.
The Center is capable of analyzing for population profiles of a variety of cells. The Profile system, installed in 1995, provides the unique opportunity to evaluate discrete populations of cells identified by fluorescent markers and separate these cells based on molecular and genetic characteristics.
The Center contains a full-service cryogenics facility capable of performing controlled-rate freezing and ultra-low temperature storage of a variety of cells and tissues. Temperature profiles are monitored and recorded using software capable of a variety of time-dependent variables. The Laboratory has considerable experience in the cryopreservation of a variety of human tissues and cell lines.
The Center forms a nucleus of Faculty and Research Scientists at both Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School. Both institutions are well established and collectively perform funded research in excess of $35M per year. In addition, the Greater Hampton Roads has recently initiated a Biomedical Research Park initiative which makes incubator facilities available to new and established biomedical and biotechnological groups. BioEnhance, Inc., and LifeNet Transplant Services research operations are housed within the Center and the Center actively promotes industry related research and development activities. Old Dominion University houses the only academic program in biotechnology in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the program has been successfully placing graduates in corporate positions since its inception in 1985.
The Center is capable of performing contract research and development under Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) conditions and has experience in 510K, PMA, and IDE applications. Through in-house computer applications and the University's main-frame computer, the Center is capable of performing a wide variety of statistical analyses, working extensively with Regulatory & amp; Marketing Services, Inc., in Florida.
Last update: July 8, 1998