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Biology

Facilities and Equipment

The Biology Department is housed within 28,000 square feet of the Millington Hall of Life Sciences (constructed in 1967). The space within the building assigned to the Department houses 11,400 sq ft of teaching lab space, 4400 sq ft of office space, and 8600 sq ft of research laboratory space. Common Department facilities and equipment (in addition to the personal research space and equipment of individual faculty investigators) are described below. Also note these resources:

• Center for Conservation Biology
• Keck Environmental Field Laboratory

Microscopy and Photographic Facilities

The electron microscopy facility includes a Zeiss EM 109 transmission microscope as well as an Amray Model 1810 scanning electron microscope with a backscatter detector and Seikosha graphic printer. These two electron microscopes are maintained within a 450 sq ft facility that is fully equipped with the necessary microtomes, processing devices, and imaging equipment. There is a full time laboratory technical position that is devoted to the support of research and teaching activities in electron and light microscopy and scientific photography.

There are several research quality microscopes that are equipped for light and fluorescent microscopy including three Olympus BH2 microscopes equipped variously for phase, Nomarski, and epifluorescence optics. These devices are supported by Sony video cameras and color monitors and an image analysis system. The department also has a confocal microscope suite.

There is a fully equipped photographic laboratory that includes two Durst Laboratory photographic enlargers with a Lectra automatic exposure control device. There is also an Agfa-Gevaert Rapidoprint black and white automatic printer.

Molecular Biology Common Room

The Department of Biology maintains 1200 sq.ft. common molecular biology core facility equipped with the following equipment: Beckman L8-70M ultracentrifuge, 3 Sorvall RC5B centrifuges, -80 ° C freezers, Savant DNA Speed Vac, Bio-Rad 583 gel drying system (with trap and pump), Bausch and Lomb Spectronic 2000 spectrophotometer, Beckman Coulter LS6500 scintillation counter, Spectronics XL-1500 UV crosslinker, 2 PerkinElmer GeneAmp PCR systems, Konica SRX-101 film processor, PerkinElmer SpotArray 24 microarray printing system, PerkinElmer ScanArray Express microarray scanner, Agilent Bioanalyzer 2100, Bio-Rad VersaFluor fluorometer, NanoDrop ND-1000 spectrophotometer Bio-Rad iCycler iQ real-time PCR system, Licor 4200 automated DNA sequencer, ABI 3100 Avant automated DNA sequencer, and Bio-Rad Radiance Multiphoton laser scanning confocal system and Zeiss TEM109 and an Amray 1810 SEM. A full-time Molecular Biology Specialist position is devoted to assisting those members of the Department employing molecular-cellular techniques.

Computing and IT Facilities

Departmental computers are connected to a local area network and fully supported with word processing, statistical, and graphics software. The College of William and Mary Information Technology center provides extensive support with software and hardware problems. For sequence analysis and other computationally intensive analyses, we also have, at no cost, access to SciClone, a high performance Unix cluster.

Within the biology department, we have two clusters of high-power wireless laptops (PCs and Macs) that can be used in any instructional rooms on campus. Currently these are used in laboratory sections for many quantitative courses.

Histology Facilities

The Department maintains certain common histological equipment including: a RMC ultraprocessor for resin embedding, an American Optical cryostat, as well as several microtomes and paraffin ovens.

Animal Care Facilities

The Department maintains two animal care facilities. one is located at the Laboratory of Endocrinology and Population Ecology on South Henry Street and contains over 6400 sq feet of research space that includes 12 animals rooms, with associated cage washing, laboratory, and office space. The second facility is within Millington Hall and contains over 1200 square feet of space including four animals rooms and the associated cage washing equipment as well as a surgery suite and a crematorium. There is a full time animal care technician who maintains both facilities. These facilities conform to current Laboratory Animal Welfare Act requirements and are made available for faculty and student research at no cost.

We also have two large bird aviary facilities, encompassing one of the largest captive bird facilities at any public university. These facilities include outdoor aviaries as well environmentally controlled rooms.

Shop Facilities

There are 840 sq ft devoted to a wood shop and an electronic shop for the fabrication and repair of instrumentation. There is also a full time laboratory instrument maker position dedicated to the teaching and research objectives of the Department.

Outdoor Facilities

The College Woods and Lake Matoaka are excellent resources for outdoor ecological research. The Keck Field Laboratory is the hub for many of the ecolgical projects on campus. 

Other Facilities

There are two rooms equipped with three modern American Sterilizer autoclaves. There is a 460 sq ft journals library, an herbarium, a cell culture room, a radiation laboratory, two 100 sq ft constant environment rooms, and over 4400 sq ft of roof greenhouse space.