Biophysical laboratories

St Michael's Building has equipment including: 

• Analytical Ultracentrifugation (Beckman XL-A) — used to spin and separate samples, creating a sedimentation coefficient that helps understand the shape and properties of samples
• Surface Plasmon Resonance (BiaCoreT200) — used for kinetic binding by layering one sample over another to see how tightly they bind and how easily they detach
• Plate readers — our two plate readers are used to test the absorption and fluorescence of up to 96 samples at once, and to detect differences in how they interact with light
• Spectrophotometer — used to analyse single samples for their absorption in detail
• Fluorescence Spectroscopy — used to analyse single samples for their fluorescence with great precision
• Mutli-angle light scattering (SEC-MALS) — used to fire lasers into samples and see their refraction patterns to understand the look, shape and properties of samples
• Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) — used to compare the expression levels in DNA sequences by amplifying certain molecules in a DNA strand
• High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) 1260 Infinity — used to separate, identify and quantify different molecular components in a mixture through pressurised liquid pumps

King Henry building has equipment including: 

• X-ray Diffractometer with Cryojet (Oxford Diffraction/Agilent) — used to understand protein structure and function by shooting an x-ray beam through crystalline samples
• 600MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectrometer with cryo-probe (Varian/Agilent) — used to obtain details about molecular structure and direct observation of chemical reactions 
• Cartesian crystallisation robot — used to create and prepare trays of crystalline samples for testing

We also have facilities for growing bacteria and purifying proteins for testing. Confocal microscopes, atomic force microscopes and electron microscopes are also available for examining samples in different states and environments.