Biology

Facilities

The Biology Department is committed to creating a dynamic, interactive and interdisciplinary science community for our students.

The new addition to the science building was completed in the spring of 2016, which includes a floor dedicated to molecular biology that houses the following facilities:
  • an 800 net square foot (nsf) cell culture lab;
  • shared cell and molecular biology research laboratory space for four faculty and their undergraduate students (2288 nsf);
  • a new interdisciplinary Keck molecular biology center that contains core equipment (858 nsf);
  • a new imaging center with microscopes, imaging equipment, and traditional darkroom (400 nsf);
  • and research support facilities including autoclave, glassware washing, and laminar flow hoods.
These spaces support the application of cellular and molecular biology techniques throughout the curriculum and promote student-faculty interaction, cross-disciplinary thinking and exploration.  All our laboratory spaces provide the opportunity for our students to use state-of-the-art equipment such as: Hitachi table-top ultra centrifuge, Nanodrop, StepOne Plus RT-PCR system, FluroChem-Protein Simple, Fluorimeter, BioRad plate reader, spectrophotometer, gel electrophoresis chambers, Coulter Cell Counter, Qubit Fluorometer and Acuri C6 Flow cytometer. 

In addition, the Biology Department has a Collaborative Learning Studio, which is a multi-functional space designed to enhance communication between members of different research labs, and serve as a venue for individual study, small group meetings and social gatherings.  This space contains lounge furniture, meeting tables, projection equipment, and space for food and drink preparation. There is also a smaller interaction and study space with dry erase write-on walls. In this way, we hope to promote the exchange of ideas, provide opportunities to discuss technical challenges, and encourage discussion implications of research.