A state-of-the-art research centre providing support, training and services in protein and cell biology, high-throughput screening, chemical synthesis and purification, mass spectrometry, and NMR.
The CMCB is a unique facility designed to serve academic and industrial researchers working in the disciplines of chemistry and biology. It is professionally managed by five full-time staff and features six integrated labs designed to cover a large scope of research activities. The high-throughput screening lab supports drug discovery activities and features a small molecule collection of 320 000 compounds; the protein and cell biology lab assists with bacterial and mammalian cell culturing activities, protein purification and assay technologies; the bioanalyticallab offers proteomics and metabolomics services as well as high resolution mass confirmation; the chemical synthesis lab supports natural product isolation and purification, as well as chemical synthesis activities; the NMR lab offers a 700 MHz instrument with cryoprobeand the bioinformatics lab offers a range of computational services within the biological sciences.
High-throughput screening, in-vitro screening of custom compounds, cell growth and lysis, protein purification and analysis, chromatographic separations, proteomics, metabolomics, high resolution mass confirmation, biomolecular interactions, kinetic analysis, spectrometry, medicinal chemistry, natural-product isolation, structural determination of organic compounds
- Agriculture, animal science and food
- Chemical industries
- Education
- Environmental technologies and related services
- Fisheries and aquaculture
- Healthcare and social services
- Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
- Manufacturing and processing
Specialized labs and equipment
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Specialized lab |
Equipment |
Function |
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High-Throughput Screening Lab |
Biomek® FXPautomated liquid handler |
Dual multi-channel (96- and 384-) pipetting heads, plus reagent cooling, plate shaking and bar-code tracking capabilities |
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Biomek® FXPautomated liquid handler for Biosafety Level 2 screens |
Fully enclosed in a HEPA-filter biological safety cabinet ideal for assays involving Biosafety Level 2 agents |
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Off-line Biomek® FXPautomated liquid handler |
For plate replication, reformatting and Span-8 pod with eight individual probes for cherry picking |
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Cytomat™ 6001 incubators |
Automated incubator that provides uniform and stable temperature, humidity and CO2 conditions; incubation temperatures range from 10ºC to 50ºC; integrated with the Biomek liquid handler |
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EnVision® 2104 multi-label reader |
Microplate reader measures luminescence, fluorescence,and absorbance, with AlphaScreen capabilities; equipped with shaker and heater options; monochromator- and filter-based; integrated with Biomek platforms and an additional stand-alone instrument with stackers that can accommodateup to 50 assay plates |
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BioRAPTR™ Flying Reagent Dispenser™ |
An automated non-contact dispenser capable of dispensing up to eight reagents into a microplate without cross-contamination; volume ranges from 100 nL to 60 µL |
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Cytomat™ 24 automated microplate hotel |
A large-capacity storage unit for assay plates, tip boxes and reservoirs; integrated with the Biomek liquid handler |
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SAMI® Workstation EX software |
Facilitates graphical assay programming, schedules assays to optimize throughput and records data generated during system operation |
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Magnetic pin tools |
96 or 384 floating pins offer a cost-effective way to transfer low-volume liquid accurately |
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ELx405™microplate washer |
Provides a wide range of washing capabilities, from gentle washing for cells to vigorous washing for ELISAs |
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Protein and Cell Biology Lab |
Getinge autoclave |
Performs steam sterilization of wrapped solids; features liquid cycles with pre-vacuum capabilities |
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Incubators |
BSL1 and BSL2 stationary and shaker incubators allow for temperature-controlled incubation; dedicated incubators for bacterial and tissue culture work |
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BioFlo® 115 benchtop fermenter/bioreactor |
Allows for large scale cell culturing and fermentation; Accommodates a wide range of cell types; Integrated control system with 1,3- and 7,5-litre vessels |
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Nikon Eclipse inverted microscope |
For examination and quantification of tissue culture cells |
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Biological safety cabinets |
Three Class II, Type A2 biosafety cabinets; two for bacterial work and one for tissue culture |
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AirClean hood |
Provides laminar flow for sample protection |
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Constant Systems continuous-flow and one-shot head cell disrupters |
Performs continuous-flow and single-pass cell disruption; large volumes of cell suspension can be processed quickly, or the one-shot head can process small sample volumes with minimal loss to lyse cell pellet, paste or suspension |
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Microson™ ultrasonic liquid processor (Sonicator) |
Cell disruption by mechanical vibration; tunes automatically and allows for continuous or pulsed operation |
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Sorvallsuperspeed centrifuge |
Superspeed centrifuge with multiple rotors, including 6 x 1 000 mL and microplate adapters; maximum speed of 70 450 xg |
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Sorvall ultracentrifuge |
Ultracentrifuge with a maximum g-force of 802 000 xg; fixed-angle and swinging-bucket rotors |
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ÄKTA purifiers and Explorers |
Fast protein liquid chromatography systems used for separating proteins from complex mixtures; features include sample pump loading, buffer preparation, scouting function and a 3-D kit to allow for sequential column purification |
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Synergy™ plate reader |
Monochromator- and filter-based microplate reader measures absorbance, luminescence and fluorescence; features an automatic injector for reagent dispensing and allows for fixed-temperature incubation during kinetic assays |
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Tecan ULTRA Evolution plate reader |
1 536-well multi-read filter-based plate reader (absorbance, fluorescence, luminescence, polarization and time-gated fluorescence measures ps-ns lifetime via TCSPC) |
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Tecan Sunrise |
96-well microplate reader with filter-based absorbance measurement; capable of performing growth curves |
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SpectraMax® Plus384 plate readers |
Absorbance microplate reader capable of reading cuvettes and 96- and 384-well plates; monochromator provides a range of available wavelengths |
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Bio-Rad ProteOn™ SPR system |
Detects the interaction between two unlabelled biomolecules in real time; assesses protein-protein, protein small molecule and protein DNA interactions; kinetic analysis (on/off rates) |
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Typhoon imaging system |
Multi-mode scanner with capabilities for fluorescence, storage phosphor and luminescence |
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Electroporator |
Permeabilizes cell membranes |
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Bio-Rad CFX96 real-time PCR detection system |
System has a gradient feature, allowing for optimization of multiple reactions in a single experiment and can discriminate up to five targets in a single reaction well |
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Bio-Rad Experion™ automated electrophoresis |
Employs LabChip microfluidic separation technology to automate electrophoresis for nucleic acid and protein analysis; performs all the steps of gel electrophoresis, including sample separation, staining, destaining, imaging and data analysis in as little as 30 minutes |
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Bioanalytical Lab |
Bruker micrOTOF II mass spectrometer integrated with an Agilent 1200 rapid resolution HPLC system |
Medium-resolution (R = ~10k) time-of-flight mass spectrometer for high-sensitivity MS analysis of small molecules and large analytes; provides exact molecular masses for molecular formula determination; excellent for metabolomics analysis |
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LTQ Orbitrap XL mass spectrometer integrated with an Agilent 1290 UHPLC system |
High-resolution multi-stage mass spectrometry of protein digests or small molecules separated by 2-D LC; can be used for protein or small molecule identification and proteomics |
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NMR Lab |
Bruker AVIII 700 MHz NMR |
Spectrometer that is outfitted with an automated sample changer (SampleJet) and CryoProbe for high-resolution experiments on proton, carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus nuclei with a very high degree of sensitivity |
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Chemical Synthesis Lab |
Waters ZQ2000 LC/MS |
Equipped with both analytical and preparative columns; mass determination up to 2 000 Da, with an accuracy to within 0,2 Da |
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Dionex™ 350 accelerated solvent extraction system |
For the extraction of chemicals from dried plants, biota or environmental samples (sediments, air samples); programmable solvents, extraction times, temperatures and pressures; range of sizes of stainless steel cells available |
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Teledyne CombiFlash® Rf 200 automated flash chromatography system |
Uses radio-frequency identification technology to allow for automated separations and fraction collection |
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Large and small BuchiRotavapor systems |
Efficiently removes solvents from samples |
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CEM microwave synthesizer |
A low-frequency energy source increases the efficiency, yield and purity of chemical synthesis reactions; significantly decreases reaction times; equipped with an autosampler |
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Genevac centrifugal solvent evaporator |
High-performance and high-throughput evaporation |
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Chemspeed SLT100 parallel synthesizer platform |
Allows full automation of liquid and solid reagent preparation, multi-step synthesis, workup, purification, analysis and product transfer to storage; can be used for chemical library synthesis, solubility, compatability and stability screening and sample preparation; features a liquid-handling unit, automated weighing station and workflow management software |
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Lyophilizer |
Freeze-dries samples |
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Bioinformatics Lab |
Bioinformatics services |
Consultation, data collection, data retrieval, genome assembly, data analysis software and state-of-the-art processing platforms |
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Web design and hosting services |
Design, develop and host basic websites to high-end database-driven websites for short- and long-term projects |
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Data analysis |
Custom platforms to analyze high-throughput screening data; data visualization |
Private and public sector research partners
- Michael DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research
- David Braley Human Stem Cell Screening Facility
- Ontario Institute for Cancer Research