Core Facilities
The Engineering Core is located on Traylor 5 and includes an electronics workshop, an office for a senior programmer, a large format poster printer, a surgical suite and histology prep room. In addition, guidance for small animal auditory phenotyping (ABR, DPOAEs) is available by arrangement. Future plans will incorporate auditory and vestibular behavioral testing.
The Histology Core is in Ross 816. This includes a cryotome, general preparative microtomes, dual-headed (tutorial) dissecting microscope, general lab equipment and small ‘clean rooms’ for ultramicrotomy. Guidance toward tissue preparation for electron microscopy is available. A fluorescence microscope with digital camera and computer are available for initial assessment of immunolabel or dye injection experiments. A special function room is equipped for tissue culture as a shared facility. Ross 820D is equipped with wide-field fluorescence imaging useful for whole mounts, such as expression patterns in transfected tissues. The Center provides support for a confocal microscope and 2-photon microscope on the 4th floor of the Rangos building in the Center for Sensory Biology. The Center for Hearing and Balance also supports a Hitachi 7600 transmission electron microscope (Wilmer Microscopy and Imaging Core Facility - MICF) located in the Smith Research Building (Department of Ophthalmology).