Ashok Mulchandani's
Bionanotechnology and Biosensors Group

LABORATORY

 

The approximately 2000 ft2 bionanotechology and biosensors laboratory located in the Bourns Hall is fully equipped to perform synthesis of graphene and other materials and electrical characterization, biosensors fabrication, characterization and testing and biological work for aptamer generation. The nanotechnology work is supported by a CVD set-up for graphene synthesis, two probe stations with microzoom microscope, a Kiethley 2636 system source meter and an Agilent 4155A semiconductor parameter analyzer to characterize electrical transport properties. In addition, it is equipped with Hirox video microscope (KH-3000) with highest magnification of 7,000 X on top of TMC vibration isolation table and Westbond 7443A manual wedge wire bonder and also an atomic force microscope (Veeco’s NanoScope V), CHI 660c potentiostat/galvanostat, multiple LC-4C amperometric detectors, rotating disk electrode, flow-injection set-up for electroanalytical research.

 

The biotechnology work in the bionanotechnology laboratory is supported by the equipment for storage, study, characterization of protein, DNA and cells, laminar hoods, autoclave, incubator-shakers, refrigerators, a -20 oC freezer, a -80 oC freezer, several incubators and incubator shakers, two 5 L fermentor with pH, DO, temperature, agitation and gas feed controls, a Bio-Rad i-cycler for real-time PCR, gel electrophoresis equipment, a UV-Vis spectrophotometer, a Zeiss fluorescence microscope, a flow-through spectrofluorometer, microcentrifuges, western blotting equipment, photo-documentation equipment, a French press, Vertis sonicator with different probes, two fluorescence microplate readers with fluorescence polarization and fluorescence life-time capabilities, water baths and refrigerated water baths, analytical balances, pH meters, etc.

 

Other shared facilities in the department available for research include, cold-rooms, an autoclave, benchtop and Beckman J-21 refrigerated centrifuges, HPLC, GC/MS, GCs with FID and ECD detectors, atomic absorption spectrophotometer, induction coupled plasma-mass spectrometer, BET analyzer and water purification systems.

 

Facilities for micro- and nano-device fabrication are available at the UCR Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering. http://www.cnse.ucr.edu/tools/

 

SEM, TEM, confocal fluorescene microscope and necessary infrastructure for sample preparation are available at the UCR Central Facility for Advanced Microscopy and Microanalysis. http://cfamm.ucr.edu/instruments.html

 

The biotechnology Instrumentation Facility on campus performs micro-amino acid analyses, sequencing, as well as DNA sequencing and synthesis. http://genomics.ucr.edu/facility/documents/facilitiesdesc.pdf

 

The Analytical Instrumentation Research Facility that is maintained by the Chemistry department has 300 MHz and 500 MHz NMRs, Raman, FTIR, MS, XPS, etc. http://acif.ucr.edu/index.html

 

Additional equipment such as induction coupled plasma for simultaneous (ICP-MS) analysis of multiple metals, XRD, scintillation counter, luminometer and ultracentrifuges are available on the campus.