Laboratory: The Department of Biomedical Engineering together with other units at Penn State, provide 0ver 1000 sq. ft. laboratory with bench top space, and gas, vacuum, air, and 110/220 VAC electrical service. In proximity to the lab are advanced tissue culture facilities, an autoclave, and a water purification room. These facilities are more than adequate to carry out the proposed experiments on membrane dynamics in sheared, cultured ECs.
Clinical: The Department of Biomedical Engineering maintains formal ties (through the Institute of Bioengineering) with Hershey Medical Center.
Computer: The P.I.’s laboratory has a Dell Dual 2Ghz, Xeon Processor, 1.5 GB RAM, workstation with 3 high speed SCSI hard drives (totaling ~173GB storage) and software for high-speed image and data acquisition and exp. control. The computer contains a National Instruments 64 Channel, 1.25 Mhz A/D board for experimental I/O. In the lab is also a Dell 1.4 GHz, 80GB computer for data analysis and manuscript preparation. For modeling, the lab as a 64 Bit 16 MB RAM Core-duo processer computer. These computers are networked to the Bioe servers for data storage and backup.
Office: The P.I. has a 153 sq. ft. office with a desk, file cabinets, and shelves. The P.I. has a Dell, 64 bit, 3 Ghz, 8MB RAM, 200 MB HD computer for manuscript preparation, data analysis, internet access, and email. The P.I.’s computer is networked to the lab computers and to the Bioengineering and Engineering School’s servers through 100Mbps links for fast data transfer, storage, and backup.
Major Equipment: In the P.I.s lab are: (i) a Newport 3’x5′ vibration isolation workstation, (ii) An IX71 Olympus epifluorescence microscope with computer controlled piezo-z-focus, (iii) an Olympus CK40 phase microscope, (iv) an Olympus Stereo zoom microscope with foot-pedal focus, (v) a Cooke, Sensicam high speed, low light CCD camera, (vi) a 635nm picosecond pulsed laser, (vii) a Melles-Griot wavelength tunable Argon/Krypton laser, (viii) a Mad City Labs piezo tilt actuator for laser beam steering, (ix) a Becker-Hickl single photon counting (SPC) board with routing unit for PMTs, (x) 2 Hamamatsu H7422-p-40 high speed PMTs, (xi) a Bioptechs flow chamber and pump, and (xii) a pH meter, high-speed centrifuge, Mettler-Toledo 0.01mg resolution analytical balance, temperature-controlled water baths, a fume hood, oxygen, temperature, and pH electrodes. (xiii) Validyne differential pressure transducer, (xiv) 2 Hamamatsu PMT amplifiers. For cell culture studies, available in contiguous space are all necessary facilities, and cell lines, laminar flow hoods, centrifuges, etc. necessary for carrying out cell culture studies.
Other: Penn State has excellent machine and glass blowing shops which will be used to make new perfusion chambers and custom glassware. The Bioengineering department also maintains a machine shop to be used for prototyping and routine manufacturing. Campus machine shops support use ot solidworks and CNC fabrication.
University Facilities Penn State also has numerous scientific facilities available to the PI. These include facilities for computational biology, electron and light microscopy, hybridoma and cell culture, mass spectrometry, and others.