Facilities and Equipment

  • Our lab has a full range of state-of-the-art equipment for protein purification, fluorometry and light microscopy, including 3 multi-spectral TIRF microscopes as well as the recently acquired super-resolution (SIM) microscope. We also share a number of facilities with related labs in the Rosenstiel center, and the biochemistry, microarray, and confocal microscopy facilities at Brandeis.

Goode Lab Facilities & Equipment

  • Super-Resolution Imaging

    Super-resolution Nikon N-SIM (structured illumination) microscope, with a Hamamatsu OrcaFLASH4 CMOS camera.

  • LM20 Microfluidizer

    Many of the experiments in our lab use recombinant proteins purified from E. coli and S. cerevisiae, and the first step in the purification process is lysis of these cells. The LM-20 microfluidizer allows us to lyse bacterial and yeast cells with far greater efficiency (almost 100% versus 20-40%), and achieve much higher yields, and in some cases more active proteins.

  • PTI Fluorometers

    We currently use two PTI QM-4/2003 spectrofluorometers to carry out kinetics assays for actin assembly and disassembly under a variety of conditions. Reactions are manipulated using the Felix software system.

  • Three AKTA FPLCs

    Two FPLCs from Amersham Pharmacia are used for purification of a range of proteins with various gel filtration and anion/cation exchange columns. The third FPLC is optimized for analytical procedures. They are contained in their own refrigeration units and are controlled externally with Unicorn software. We also have the associated automatic fractionators to simplify eluate collection.

  • Three TIRF Microscopes

    We use three triple-color Nikon total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopes, equipped with an Andor EM-CCD cameras. These are primarily used for monitoring in vitro real-time dynamics of individual actin filaments and for single molecule analysis. They are also available for in vivo TIRF live cell imaging.

  • 2 Tecan microplate readers

    Tecan Infinite M200-PRO and F200 microplate readers to carry out fluorescence- and luminescence-based biochemical assays in a 96‑well format. The instruments are controlled using Magellan and i‑Control software.

  • Centrifuges

    Large samples may be spun in either of two Sorvall RC-6+ centrifuges, while larger G forces can be applied using our two ultracentrifuges (Beckman Coulter Optima LE-80K and an older Beckman L8-70). We also have a Beckman Optima TLX tabletop ultracentrifuge, which can be used for high speed applications such as sedimenting actin filaments.

Jabberwocky Spinning Disk Microscope

Smaug laser scanning confocal microscope

Jointly-Owned Equipment

Brandeis University has a number of facilities that are shared among labs and specialized equipment which may be used by any of the biology, biochemistry, chemistry and biophysics labs on campus.

• "Jabberwocky": a state-of-the-art spinning disk microscope with both confocal and non-confocal modes, piezo stage, two Andor Ixon Ultra CCD cameras for simultaneous 2-color or sequential acquisition, and a sCMOS camera for rapid epifluorescence detection. 

• "Smaug": a laser scanning confocal inverted Nikon Ti-E-PFS3 eclipse microscope with several solid-state lasers, a 7-LED Light Engine array, an sCMOS camera (Andor Zyla), and an EMCCD camera (Andor Ixon).

• BLItz protein binding kinetics assay system

• Odyssey quantitative infrared fluorescence imaging scanner

Shared Facilities