Additional Facilities

Bioengineering Research Center (5th floor, Learned Hall)

Through his participation in the Bioengineering Research Center, Prof Gehrke has access to a complete suite of materials characterization equipment for this project including:

Xradia MicroXCT Tomographic X-Ray Microscope: this tomographic X-ray microscope include a 90 keV microfocused source, 2K x 2K CCD camera, multiple resolution modes down to 400 nm voxels, phase enhanced detectors and soft tissue imaging of samples up to 100 mm in diameter, and a precision stage resting on granite base. It uses phase contrast, instead of absorption contrast, and offers substantially improved image contrast for soft biological tissues to allow their visualization. The novel detector of the MicroXCT-400 with a pixel resolution of about 0.3 mm and spatial resolution of less than 1 mm has the highest performance of any commercially available x-ray detector and provides powerful 3D visualization capability to biomedical researchers.

C-SAM Gen 5 system Scanning Acoustic Microscopes (Sonoscan, IL) comes with a set of 4 high precision acoustic lenses.

Veeco Wyko NT 1100 Optical Profiler
 provides accurate, non- contact surface metrology for applications in MEMS, thick films, optics, ceramics, advanced materials and many more;

TA Instruments Q800 Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer based on a combined motor and transducer design, uses advanced, non-contact, linear motors to control stress and measures strain with a highly sensitive optical encoder. TA Instruments Q200 Temperature-Modulated

TA Instruments Differential Scanning Calorimeter Q5000 SA is designed for manual or automated sorption analysis of materials under controlled conditions of temperature and relative humidity (RH).

PekinElmer PYRIS 1 Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA) can work on a large range of temperature: from sub ambient to 1000 °C. This ensure the detection of phenomena even when occurring at room temperature. Scanning rates can be set from 0.1 °C/min to 50 °C/min, according to the needs of the experiment.

Perkin Elmer Spectrum 400 FTIR spectrometer is equipped with two temperature stabilized fast-recovery deuterated triglycine sulphate detectors (one optimized for Mid-IR and one optimized for NIR) and Pike Heated Diamond GladiATR accessory.

Perkin Elmer Spotlight 400 FTIR Microscope FTIR chemical imaging system and microscope are built into the same system with patented Duet detector containing NBMCT array detector and MBMCT detector in the same dewar, on the same substrate. Transmission, reflectance and ATR imaging mode could be carried out using the array detector with pixel resolution at 1.56 micron.

Jobin Yvon LabRam ARAMIS Micro-Raman Microscope is an integrated fully automated confocal Raman imaging system equipped with 2 sources of internal laser excitation (HeNe: 632.8nm Diode: 785nm), a full range of objectives.

Digital Instruments Multimode V Atomic Force Microscope/ coupled with Hysitron TS 75 TriboScope. NanoScope V controller delivers reliable, high-speed data capture of high-pixel-density images (5120 x 5120). Enables up to eight images to be simultaneously displayed/captured. Fluid Imaging Cells provide contact mode and Tapping Mode AFM imaging in fluid environments.

The TS-75 Nanomechanical Test System is a fully integrated AFM attachment with a new performech™ DSP embedded controller, which boasts a sub 30nN force noise floor and 160X faster feedback control than the previous generation controller. Utilizing the same indenter probe to obtain in situ SPM images as to perform the nanoindentation experiment guarantees quantitative and repeatable data. This includes the nanoDMA™ to investigate time-dependent properties of materials using a dynamic testing technique designed for polymers and biomaterials; Modulus mapping – quantitatively map the storage and loss stiffness and moduli over an area from a single SPM scan; Feedback control – operate in closed loop load or displacement control to allow testing techniques such as creep and stress relaxation; Scratch testing – quantify scratch resistance, critical delamination forces, friction coefficients and more with simultaneous normal and lateral force and displacement monitoring.

Leica SM2500 and SP2600 heavy duty sectioning microtome and micromilling device used to section large area samples up to 250 mm L x 200 mm W x 70 mm H. It is equipped to handle large and/or hard materials. It will section samples in a range of 1-1,000 microns in 1 micron increments. The SP 2600 attaches to the SM 2500 expanding its capability by adding micromilling capacity, for surface preparation of samples. The SP 2600 is a milling device which will mill samples in a range of 500-3,000 rpm in 500 rpm intervals. The SP2600 produces a highly polished surface of varying sample types which are suitable for reflected light microscopy techniques, or any other surface analysis technique requiring a flat surface. It is particularly well suited for samples that contain hard and soft areas adjacent to each other.

EcoMet 3000 8’’(203mm) variable speed grinder/polisher table-top model. Corrosion and impact resistant RIM cabinet with molded-in bowl with jet flush, drain, pop-up swing faucet with electrically operated flow valve, variable speed from 10-500 in 10 rpm increments, maintaining constant speed under most load conditions, Digital LED display, touch-pad controls and illuminated power on/off switch, motor speed control and run/stop switch with built-in memory for returning to last speed setting, water on/off, platen cover and removable splash guard.

With the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry

Through his courtesy appointment with the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Prof. Gehrke also has access to facilities and specialized equipment in this department, which includes, a water vapor sorption analyzer (VTI SGA-100), helium pycnometer (Micromeritics AccuPyc 1330), dissolution apparatus (Distek 2100), Karl Fischer coulometer (Mettler-Toledo DL36), melting apparatus (Mettler-Toledo FP800HT), two RH/T stability chambers (Espec Humidity Cabinet LHL-112 and LHU-112), microscope (Leitz Ortholux IIPOL-BK), cryomill (SPEX Certiprep 6750 Freezer/Mill), Perkin Elmer Thermally Modulated Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA), a Calorimetry Sciences Microtitration Calorimeter (Model 4200), a Nicolet Magna-IR 560 Spectrometer for FTIR, CD spectrometer (AVIV CD Spectrometer Model 60DS), a fluorescence spectrometer (Shimadzu RF 5000), Brookhaven Laser Light Scattering, and Chromex 2000 Raman spectrometer.  

The Macromolecule and Vaccine stabilization lab also exists in this department and is housed in the Multidisciplinary Research Building on the University of Kansas West Campus in Lawrence. A state of the art Biological Safety Level 3 laboratory fully equipped for macromolecular formulation studies and adjacent tissue culture facility are an integral part of the laboratory. The laboratory is equipped to perform extensive spectroscopic and thermodynamic studies including circular dichroism (CD), fluorescence, UV-Visible absorbance, and dynamic light scattering measurements over a wide temperature range (0-90° C). This instrumentation is also designed for high throughput studies permitting the rapid acquisition of data. Thermodynamic measurements are performed in high throughput high-sensitivity scanning calorimeters as well as a high sensitivity pressure perturbation calorimeter and an ultrasonic spectrometer that greatly expands capabilities in characterizing molecular stability. The state of art tissue culture facility permits a range of biological studies to be performed including plaque assays.

The Mass Spectroscopy Laboratory is equipped with a Micromass Q-TOF micro and MALDI-TOF dual detector mass spectrometers. The Q-TOF instrument is interfaced to a Waters LC system capable of two dimensional separations with direct output to the Q-TOF instrument. Data from both instruments is analysed by protein-Lynx software that is capable of searching numerous protein databases including SWISS-PROT and NCBI. The laboratory also houses a Beckman-Coulter 2D Proteome System for high resolution 2D chromatography, and a Beckman-Coulter Analytical Ultracentrifuge with interference and absorbance optics. The Proteome system utilizes chromatofocusing in the first dimension coupled to RP-HPLC in the second. All fractions can be further characterized by mass spectroscopy (MALDI-TOF or Q-TOF MS/ MS). The proteome system is capable of separating over 2000 proteins per run for mass spectroscopic identification. The lab borders the Universities Protein Structure Building which provides direct access to other mass spectrometers including FTMS as well s high field NMRs (600 and 800 MHz).

Other Campus Facilities

Other on campus facilities available for utilization on a fee-for service basis include a fully equipped and staffed microscopic imaging facility, peptide synthesizer, and protein expression and purification facility. In the latter case, the KU COBRE [NIH Center Of Biomedical Research Excellence] Protein Production Group (PPG) focuses on the cloning, expression and purification of prokaryotic and eukaryotic proteins for COBRE and other investigators in Kansas and the region. The laboratory maintains a variety of equipment to support the production of properly folded proteins in quantities suitable for structural studies, functional studies, label-free binding studies and/or high throughput screening studies. The PPG also provides advice and consultation, training, access to equipment, and custom services in many aspects of protein production, starting with cloning.