Support theMiami Microbiology Facilities and Equipment
An Academic Challenge Award from the Selective Excellence Program of the State of Ohio, a $250,000 NSF grant and a portion of the interdepartmental $1,000,000 Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute award have provided sophisticated, state-of-the-art equipment, post-doctoral fellowships and distinguished lecturers that have enhanced our research programs and been helpful in recruiting highly qualified faculty and excellent students.
The research equipment in the Department allows our faculty and graduate students to carry out technically sophisticated research projects in microbiology. We have state-of-the-art equipment for the synthesis of specific DNAs to probe and study unique genetic information, flow cytometric analyses of specific tumor cells, virus-infected cells, and immune-specific cells, and molecular characterizations by high pressure liquid chromatography. Research equipment is also housed in common facilities that provide graduate students and faculty access to shared equipment such as autoclaves, coldrooms, photography, computer-imaging, microscopy, scintillation and gamma counters, radioanalytic imaging, and ultracentrifugation.
Because of Miami University's commitment to computer technology development, we can access a wide variety of databases from our office computers; for example, we can access the National Library of Medicine Medline database and Miami has a contract with University of Wisconsin Genetics Computer Group (GCG), which provides us with sequence analysis software updates for GenBank. Furthermoer, every research laboratory, office, and classroom has wireless internet access.
The three biological science departments are housed mainly in Pearson Hall (PSN) which was completed in 1986. This 22 million dollar building contains approximately 110,000 square feet of assignable space and 23 teaching laboratories. In PSN are departmental office complexes for each department, consisting of the main office, a faculty and student mail room, an office equipment room, and a conference room. In PSN is an office and research laboratory for each member of the faculty, offices for postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, four lecture rooms, 12 cold rooms, and 10 walk-in environmental rooms with photoperiod and temperature control. There is an animal care facility of about 6,000 square feet, staffed by four full-time employees. An electron microscope facility of about 3,000 square feet contains two scanning and two transmission electron microscopes, as well as a full range of associated equipment. It is staffed by two full-time employees. In addition to the aforementioned special facilities, there exists genetic cloning rooms, tissue culture rooms, isotope rooms, a greenhouse, and several special equipment rooms.