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National Capability & Facilities
The MBA is well equipped with up to date facilities for visiting researchers. The Laboratory has a modern seawater system with holding tanks and provision for research, as well as access to research vessels and sampling equipment. The laboratory has well equipped molecular biology laboratories, advanced imaging and confocal microscopy , electrophysiology and analytical and computing capabilities. There is a wide range of culturing facilities for algae, phytoplankton, mammalian cell lines and yeast. The MBA also hosts the National Marine Biology Library and the Plymouth Algal Culture Collection.
In recent years the MBA has developed the Marine Life and Environmental Resource Centre which has been designed for educational and training purposes. The Resource Centre has a seminar area for up to 80 people and fully equipped laboratory space for up to 40 people.
Visitors working at the Laboratory will always find research and support staff available for help and advice.
Seawater system
The MBA has a state of the art seawater, animal holding and husbandry facility that was established through a capital equipment grant from the Wellcome Trust in 1998. There is a direct pumped seawater supply from Plymouth Sound into two large reservoirs that feed the seawater circulation systems. More information about the seawater system.
Animal holding and husbandry
The seawater system comprises a semi-recirculated system for holding and husbandry and a research circulation with modern filter and UV purification. There is a wide range of tanks for vertebrate and invertebrate husbandry and experimentation. More information about animal husbandry.
Research vessels
The MBA recently acquired a new coastal research vessel MBA Sepia, equipped with a range of sampling equipment. This vessel is managed through a joint arrangement with the Plymouth Marine Laboratory . The MBA also has a smaller dory (Sagitta) for estuarine and river sampling. The joint MBA/PML research vessel pool also provides access to the Plymouth Quest, a larger vessel for coastal, shelf and English Channel studies.
Molecular Biology
The laboratory is equipped with facilities for PCR , including real-time PCR , RNA purification, DNA sequencing, protein and nucleic acid separation. electroporation, biolistics, and cell culture.
Microscopy
The lab is generously equipped for live cell imaging, with the following microscopy facilities:
- A range of stereo and compound microscopes, including several fluorescence microscopes.
- Fluorescence microscope equipped for micro-photometry and camera imaging with a Hammamatsu Orca cooled CCD camera.
- Confocal and 2-photon microscopes , including:
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- a Bio-Rad 1024 confocal scanning laser on a Nikon inverted microscope equipped with a krypton/argon laser providing blue and green excitation wavelengths.
- a Bio-Rad Radiance confocal system on a Nikon upright microscope, equipped with argon, HeNe and blue diode lasers providing, near UV, blue and green excitation.
- a Zeiss LSM 510 confocal/multiphoton system with argon, and red and green HeNe confocal lasers, providing a range of excitation wavelengths. This system is also equipped with a Spectraphysics Mai-Tai tuneable IR laser providing 2-photon excitation across a range of wavelengths.
- A Jeol 200CX transmission electron microscope and access to the University of Plymouth Electron Microscopy Centre with a comprehensive range of TEM , SEM and microanalytical instruments.
Electrophysiology
A comprehensive range of patch clamp, voltage clamp (single and 2-electrode) recording apparatus is available for use with bright field, fluorescence and confocal microscopy. Facilities are also available for single cell microinjection and laser microsurgery. There is also a Xenopus holding and oocyte microinjection and recording facility for heterologous expression of membrane transporters.
Analytical facilities
The laboratory is equipped with a range of analytical instrumentation, including HPLC, gas chromatography, spectrophotometry, spectrofluorimetry, atomic absorption spectrophotometry and a radio isotope laboratory.
Computing
Fully integrated Windows and Unix networked systems with data storage, e-mail and Webmail.
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