Talaga Group - Research Facilities


Wrightlabs

Departmental

    The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology research facilities include extensive shop facilities, a comprehensive chemistry library, outstanding computer facilities, and state-of-the-art research instrumentation. Support for these facilities is provided by a high-level support staff, including Ph.D. chemists in the positions of Director of NMR Spectroscopy, Director of Computational Chemistry, and Director of X-Ray Facilities.

Molecular Biology

    The Wright-Reiman Molecular Biology/Macromolecular Crystallography Laboratory is equipped to carry out purification and crystallization of protein, DNA and protein/DNA complexes for biophysical studies. The laboratory is also equipped to carry out PCR amplification of DNA, construction of expression vectors, cell transformation and growth. Professor Talaga is a founding member of this facility, his group having unrestricted access to its capabilities. Equipment includes gel electrophoresis, autoclave, incubater, -80°C Freezer, 4°C cold room, centrifuge, liquid chromatography, etc.

Prep Lab

Preparatory

    The 500 sq.ft wet chemistry lab is equipped with 2 6-foot fume hoods, a vacuum oven, an incubator, a refrigerator/freezer, analytical balance, a full complement of digital micropipettes, HPLC, sonicator, chemical storage, flammable storage, etc. A complement of high intensity ultraviolet and visible lamps facilitates photochemical synthesis, photocuring of polymers, and photobleaching of samples to reduce fluorescent background.
    Chemical synthesis, sample incubation, microfluidic device assembly, and other preparatory activities keep this laboratory in heavy use.
Treo221 20Jun05

Spectroscopy

    Professor Talaga’s 1100 sqft laser laboratory contains the following equipment: Coherent 25Watt Ar+ pump laser, Mira femtosecond Ti:Sapphire tunable laser oscillator, Rega 5-250kHz regenerative amplifier, 400nm optical parametric amplifier. Broadly tunable (340-540,680-1080nm) dual (10ps/70fs) Ti:Sapphire with active frequency stabilization and 10W diode-pumped solid state Nd:Vanadate pump laser. Olympus IX-70 inverted microscope fitted with multiple filter cubes and 3 objectives (60x 1.4NA Oil immersion, 60x 1.2NA near-IR optimized water immersion, and 40x long-working distance (3-4mm) air). liquid helium cryostat for optical spectroscopy, a liquid helium cryostat designed for microscope use, a triple monochromator for raman spectroscopy with a thinned, back illuminated CCD camera, Andor technolodies Ixon EM CCD with 15fps full image readout, 4 Perkin Elmer single photon counting avalanche photodiodes.

Computing

    Professor Talaga has an 8-cpu Linux cluster for computational biology and advanced data analysis needs. Additionally he has free access to the facilities of the Rutgers High Performance Computing Project. For routine computer applications there are 5 Windows XP/2000 machines and a group laptop for research presentations. All computers are operated on a high speed secure switched network. Hardware-secured 801.11b/g wireless networking is available in the main Laboratories for group member laptop computers.

Analytical

    HPLC/MS
Circular Dichroism/Fluorimeter with fast mixing capabilities.
NMR multinuclear 500MHz, 600MHz, 800MHz with cryoprobe.
Dynamic Light Scattering at 532nm Shop The Department of Chemistry has fully equipped and staffed in-house glassblowing, electronics, and microcomputer shops. The combined Chemistry-Physics Machine Shop is located in the adjacent Serin Physics Laboratory. A self-service machine shop is also available for student and post-doctoral use.

Shop

    The Department of Chemistry has fully equipped and staffed in-house glassblowing, electronics, and microcomputer shops. The combined Chemistry-Physics Machine Shop is located in the adjacent Serin Physics Laboratory. A self-service machine shop is also available for student and post-doctoral use.