Highlights and achievements

The Bioimaging Facility has contributed to a number of high impact publications including Genes and Development and Nature. We have also a number of collaborations with other imaging facilities around the country and have close working relationships with many of the microscope and imaging companies. We run regular imaging workshops for Life Sciences' members and also host workshops, in collaboration with the microscope companies, for external users.

Highlights and achievements

Since its inception in 2006 the facility has contributed to a number of publications in a broad range of journals. In 2012 a local Galaxy server was created, part of the facility's efforts to provide services and training enabling University Biologists to analyse their own data.

Services

The Bioinformatics facility comprises five full-time members of staff. Users are encouraged to discuss their requirements in advance, which allows us to assist in the design of experiments so as to provide the most effective data analysis at the end of the project. While our primary role is to work with the Genomic Technologies Core Facility, we also work directly with researchers throughout the University to help with the integrative analysis of their genomic datasets. Data management support is also offered in the form of optimising and automating routine tasks.

Highlights and achievements

The Biomolecular Analysis Core Facility is one of the largest of its kind in the country. It contains 16 complimentary analysis systems (9 biophysical and 7 mass spectrometric) supported by high resolution electrophoretic and chromatographic micro separation systems. The five dedicated facility staff provide service support for the most popular applications as well as developing and establishing new methodologies using the equipment. Recent publications using data created within the facility include ones in Nature and Journal of Cell Science.

Highlights and achievements

The facility is actively involved in a wide range of research topics across the faculty and in the past few years has contributed to over 50 scientific publications in high profile biological journals including 22 publications where EM staff members were authors. EM staff are available to train and assist both staff and students in all aspects of electron microscopy and is regularly involved in the promotion of electron microscopy to schools and colleges through talks and hands on demonstrations.

Highlights and achievements

The facility offers state-of-the art equipment, which can be used to study many different types of reactions from the nanosecond through to minute timescales. The facility is actively involved in a wide range of research topics and has contributed to a number of publications in a broad range of journals. We are available to train and assist both staff and students in all aspects of fast reaction work.

Highlights and achievements

The Manchester Fly facility is one of the largest Fly facilities in the UK. Active users comprise 13 groups using Drosophila in a broad range of scientific research areas.

Highlights and achievements

Histology supports a wide range of research projects within the Faculty across most research groups. Our state-of-the-art facility is housed within the AV Hill Building and provides advice, training and support for all histological procedures from tissue/cell acquisition through processing, sectioning, staining (including standard histological, immuno and in situ protocols) and imaging. For high end imaging and analysis we refer you to the Bioimaging facility.

“…crystal structures are crucial to our interdisciplinary programs focusing on enzyme mechanism and catalysis. The MPSF has, and continues to play a major role in structure determination in our programmes on enzyme catalysed H-transfer, cofactor chemistry and in developing physical models for catalysis.”

Professor Nigel S. Scrutton
Professor of Molecular Enzymology

X-Ray crystallography utilises X-ray diffraction by single protein crystals to elucidate three dimensional structures at atomic resolution. The technique plays a pivotal role in understanding how individual amino acids interact with small molecule ligands and cofactors.

The MPSF (Manchester Protein Structure Facility) provides a complete service pipeline, taking you from purified protein to crystal structure. The MPSF is serviced by two full time senior experimental officers. Expert users can gain access to the facility equipment, whilst non experts are offered a complete service pipeline for structure elucidation.

Meeting the often rate limiting challenge of crystallogenesis are two complimentary high throughput nanolitre dispensing robots (Mosquito & Phoenix) allowing rapid screening and optimisation. The facility also houses two rotating anode X-ray generators and associated data collection equipment. These in-house facilities are further supplemented with regular synchrotron access.

All services and equipment are available to both University of Manchester researchers and external users (academic & commercial).

Highlights

The facility is actively involved in a wide range of research topics across several faculties and has contributed to a number of publications in a broad range of journals.

Services

The standard access point to the MPSF is purified protein, however technical support can be provided to help you achieve this goal. If you are thinking of determining a crystal structure then the time to talk to the MPSF is now.

The MPSF provides an efficient and streamlined approach to protein crystallography. Complete crystal growth, characterisation, data collection and subsequent structure determination services are available.

Equipment

Crystallogenesis

To meet the challenge of this rate limiting step two complimentary robotic systems (Mosquito & Phoenix) enable the rapid and reproducible creation of crystal trials. Both capable of nanolitre dispensing, broad screening and optimisation experiments are rapidly carried out consuming minimal quantities of protein.

Experimental crystallisation plates may be incubated at a variety of temperatures in either a dedicated cold room housed within the facility or using one of two incubators. More sophisticated temperature screening is available through the use of two TG-40 temperature control units.

A Belle Technology glove box provides an anaerobic environment for all aspects of crystallogenesis and sample preparation. Samples grown under anaerobic conditions can be cryocooled within the box prior to transfer for diffraction data collection either in-house or at a synchrotron facility.

Plates are inspected using one of three Nikon SMZ 1000 microscopes (2 with camera facilities) or with an Art Robbins CrysCam visualisation system. An aditional Nikon SMZ 1000 microscope is located within the cold room for inspecting temperature sensitive samples.

Microspectrophotometry

A microspectrophotometer from 4DX Systems AB is available to acquire absorption spectra measurements from single crystals in the UV-VIS-NIR spectral range. A dedicated Oxford cryosystems cold head allows exquisite temperature control at the sample. The cold head is fitted with an in-house designed cryo shutter allowing flash freezing for cryo trapping experiments.

X-Ray Diffraction

The facility houses both a Bruker Microstar microfocus X-ray source and a Rigaku Micromax 007. In addition to the exceptional flexibility this dual setup affords us, we are able to exploit the Rigaku vertical Phi arrangement to couple the 4DX microspec system directly into the X-Ray setup allowing X-ray and spectroscopic data collection from a single crystal.

Equipment

Housed at the MIB, the Faculty has both state-of-the-art very high magnetic field strength instruments, and more economical lower field instruments. All are designed for solution measurements.

• 800 MHz Bruker four-channel liquid-state spectrometer
  This new instrument represents an important step change in the applicability of new NMR experimentation developments providing high-resolution, three-dimensional structures and dynamical properties of membrane proteins, complex carbohydrates, nucleic acids and protein-protein complexes, and maps their macromolecular interactions. The probe on this machine has cryo-cooled carbon and proton coils, providing very high sensitivity measurements, which in turn allows measurements of more complex systems with higher molecular weights.
• 600 MHz Bruker DRX four-channel liquid-state spectrometer
  Equipped with a high sensitivity TXI cryoprobe with cooled proton channel.
• 500 MHz liquid-state 5-channel NMR spectrometer
  Equipped with a high sensitivity proton/fluorine cryoprobe. Fluorine NMR provides additional information to the standard nuclei set of 1H, 13C and 15N.
• 400 MHz NMR spectrometer
  Carbon and proton detection for small molecule work. This is a walk-up service spectrometer for determining the results of chemical syntheses.

Highlights and achievements

The Protein Expression facility has been developed following the success of a one year pilot project within the Faculty. One of these pilot projects has already contributed to a Biochemical J. publication on the phosphoregulation of human Mps1 kinase.

Services

• High level expression and scale-up production of recombinant proteins
• Protein purification
• Cloning service
• Troubleshooting service
• In-house R&D vector design
• Vector DNA and E.coli strain bank
• Training courses