Equipment from

The 384 sample GeneTitan is a high throughput genotyper. This platform offers a number of benefits over existing systems, for instance the 384 GeneTitan has the capability to process 24- 96- or 384 samples in parallel, enabling targeted SNP or gene expression analysis to be carried out at medium or high throughout levels, compared with the labour intensive single (eight at most) cartridge array formats that the Bristol Genomics Facility currently houses.

Dynamic mechanical analyser (DMA)

The Wolfson Bioimaging Facility is a microscopy facility with new FEI electron microscopes sitting side-by-side to the latest Leica and Perkin Elmer confocal microscopes; we are particularly well set up for live cell imaging and for correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM).

Our aim is to provide both the latest-state-of-the-art, as well as more routine facilities for both Light and Electron Microscopy users.

Fatigue testing, Tension torsion

Test bed

Fast live cell imaging confocal (Perkin Elmer spinning disk system). Equipped with 5 lasers (6 lines): Ar (488, 514 nm lines), Kr (568 nm), 2 blue diodes (405, 440nm) and red diode (640 nm). Hamamatsu EMCCD camera. Photokinesis system for photobleaching. Rapid switching between excitation/emission wavelengths. Piezo focus drive for rapid acquisition of image stacks. The system is attached to a Leica DMI6000 inverted microscope with a Solent incubator and is controlled by Volocity software.

Materials Characterisation

Waterjet cutting, 4.5 axis, 1.2m x 1.2m

High resolution micromachining, etching, deposition & microscopy, incl secondary electron and backscattered electron SEM, Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and nanomanipulation.

Laser projection for fabric placement

A state of the art 500MHz spectrometer using a carbon cryo probe to give exceptional 13C sensitivity. Equipped with a 60 place sample changer, it is available to use by any researchers who require it (after training)

An MRI unit housed in the equine diagnostic centre for clinical use in diagnosing lower limb disease in horses By visualising slices through tissue MRI can quickly and precisely localise damage to both bone and soft tissues. Standing MRI identifies the specific cause lameness in over 90% of cases.

Transmission Electron Microscopy, Cryo TEM, STEM - Scanning TEM

The ThermoElectron MAT95 XP-Trap is a double focussing dual sector (reverse Niers Johnson geometry)-ion trap hybrid mass spectrometer and is the most versatile of all the instruments the lab maintains. It is equipped with both GC (EI and CI +/-) and HPLC interfaces (electrospray and APCI) and is capable of both low and high resolution measurements and MIKES. The addition of an ion trap also enables MSn expermients to be performed.

Liquid handling robot

High resolution sector mass spectrometer.

High resolution sequential (MSn) mass spectrometer.

Confocal Microscopy

Fatigue testing

A Multi-mode (Bruker) atomic force microscope with peak force control. Capable of simultaneously mapping mechanical properties of a surface as well as its topograohy at a nano scale

Viscosity measurement

Cryofixation

The latest generation Leica confocal with hybrid detectors alongside PMTs, providing increased sensitivity. A second ‘resonant’ scanner enables image acquisition at higher frame rates. These extra features provide advantages for live cell imaging. Equipped with five lasers (9 available lines) - Ar laser (458, 476, 488, 496, 514 nm lines), yellow, orange and red lasers (561, 594, 633 nm lines) and a 405 nm diode laser.

Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) / Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) Room temperature to 1100degC Simultaneous measurement of heat flow & weight change

Microtome, ultra thin sectioning, electron microscopy

NMR Spec 500 MHz, solution state NMR, Multi nuclear

Dry composite routing machine, mill, 5 axis, 13m x 2.5m x 1m working envelope

NMR Spec 300 MHz, solution state NMR, Multi nuclear

Soil mechanics

Wind turbulence, aerodynamics

A dedicated high pressure liquid chromatograph system, with autosampler and PDA detector, connected via an electrospray interface or atmospheric pressure chemical ionisation interface to a triple quadrupole mass analyser. Typically setup to run normal phase separations for determination of the TEX86 palaeotemperature proxy.

CNC fabric cutting

NMR Spec 300 MHz, solution state NMR, Multi nuclear, automated sample handling (robotic)

Milling Machine

Large animal X Ray

Fatigue testing

Multi functional robot

ThermoMechanical Analyser (TMA)

NMR Spec 400 MHz, solution state NMR, Multi nuclear, automated sample handling (robotic)

"Making use of a newly discovered physics, our contact mode high-speed atomic force microscope (HS-AFM) is the fastest in the world by several orders of magnitude. The HS-AFM moves the sample in a raster pattern and engages a sharp tip with the surface in order to map the samples topography with nanometre lateral and sub atomic height resolution over millimetre sized areas.  The tip can be thought of as a finger passing across a surface, not only is it possible to map the height of the surface, it is also possible to map the local stiffness, thermal and electrical properties at the same time.

Typical applications: The HS-AFM typically collects data at 2 million pixels per second, however this can be increased to 10 million pixels per second if required. These pixel rates allow the HS-AFM to image millimetre sized areas in under a day, a task that would take a conventional AFM in excess of a year of continuous imaging. Examples include: vast sampling of nanostructures for unbeatable sample statistics and measurement certainty, and mapping of nano-structures across large areas. In addition to imaging large areas we can use the high pixel rate of the instrument can be used to observe nano and micro scale dynamic processes with millisecond temporal resolution. Examples include: corrosion of metallic surfaces, formation of crystals and salts, and bio-molecular processes."

The Agilent 7200B Series GC/Q-TOF is a tandem MS based instrument that combines the features of a GC-MS system with an ability to perform MS/MS analyses and accurate mass determinations. Scan rates of up to 50 Hz are achieveable and EI(+) and CI(+/-) ionisation modes are available.

High speed photography

Microscope, electric stage, inverted materials

Transmission Electron Microscopy, mainly biological specimens

Imaging, characterisation, Nanoscale metology

Leica LASX live cell imaging workstation with DMI6000 inverted epifluorescence microscope with adaptive focus control (maintains focus during timelapse imaging). Equipped with Leica DFC365FX monochrome CCD camera (1392x1040 6.45µm pixels, 8 or 12 bit), motorised stage and Solent incubator for multi-site timelapse imaging (fluorescence, phase contrast, DIC).

NMR Spec 500 MHz, solution state NMR, Multi nuclear, automated sample handling (robotic)

Fatigue testing

Widefield fluorescence microscope system with motorised stage and incubator for automated image acquisition and live cell imaging

400 oC, 120 tonne, 1m x 1.4m press

High resolution micromachining, etching, deposition & microscopy, TEM sample preparation and sectioning, IC modification.

Imaging, Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, cathodoluminescence

LDA

500MHz NMR spectrometer for metabolomic research

High resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer.

Zeiss Sigma VP FEG-SEM with Edax coincident EDX/EBSD, backscattered electron detector, large sample chamber, motorised stage and Omicron argon ion gun for general SEM and elemental analysis of large samples, crystal orientation imaging microscopy, phase identification and strain measurement on a point-to-point basis

Ion-trap mass spectrometer.

Manipulation of micro materials by nano tools, Sensing forces on biological materials

Analytical Field Emission Gun Transmission Electron Microscope

Wide angle X-ray scattering (WAXS), crystalline materials.

Normal operating range 2-90 degrees 2theta

Animal Hydrotherapy

NMR Spec 600 MHz, solution state NMR, Biological/Protein NMR, Triple resonance cryo-probe. The signal to noise for proton on a standard ethyl benzene (0.1%) sample is between 5500 and 7000:1. This compares to 1280:1 on the INOVA 600 and 500:1 at 500 MHz.

Microtome, sectioning, cryo

Contact and non contact metrology

Confocal Microscope

Horse Treadmill

Autoclaving

Double Diaphragm Former 15m x 3m up to 180^oC

Fluorescence imaging

General Scanning Electron Microscopy and elemental analysis of large samples, crystal orientation imaging microscopy, phase identification and strain measurement on a point to point basis

Differential Scanning Calorimetry

Liquid handling robotics platform for molecular biology, cloning and small scale protein work.

High resolution hybrid ion mobility time-of-flight mass spectrometer with Nano-Acquity UPLC and Advion Nanomate Triversa automated nanospray ion source.

CT scanning of equine heads

Leica SP8 confocal with visible lasers for CLSM and Spectra Physics DeepSee (670-1300nm plus 1050nm) laser for multiphoton excitation. Internal and non-descanned HyD and PMT detectors for flexible CLSM/MP imaging. Second harmonic generation imaging enabled in forward and reverse directions. On a DM600 upright microscope with long working distance water immersion lenses for deep imaging.

resin infusion, pressure pot

Fatigue testing

For single crystal diffraction analysis of crystals of proteins, macromoleules and small molecules. Determination of absolute structure possible for organic molecules.

NMR Spec 300 MHz, solution state NMR, Multi nuclear

Seismic simulation, seismic testing, vibration testing,

Signal conditioning and data acquisition

600MHz NMR spectrometer with prodigy probe for metabolomic research

For single crystal diffraction analysis.

Unit cell size range from 500-20000 A³

Sofware can also handle twinned samples.

Scanning Electron Microscopy

HPC clusters, Research Data storage subsystems

400^oC, 16 Bar, 11m x 3m dia autoclave

Fatigue testing

An IT300 Scanning Electron Microscope (JEOL)

Leica confocal with white light laser enabling excitation tuning, spectral scanning and gated imaging. HyD SMD detectors and picoquant software enable fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). Gated STED unit and two depletion lasers (592 and 660nm) enable multi-colour super-resolution imaging. On a DMi8 inverted microscope. Equipped with 405 and 442 nm lasers in addition to the WLL (470-670nm) tuneable laser.

Wind turbulence, aerodynamics

Based on the popular Agilent 5400 platform, the Agilent 5420 SPM/AFM is a high-precision instrument that has been re-engineered to provide lower noise, better performance, and greater versatility. Featuring a new ergonomic design and improved electronics, this scientiic-grade microscope delivers atomic-scale resolution

Confocal Microscopy

Electron microscopy

Composite curing, 200 oC, 13 Bar

Thermal Gravimetric Analyser (TGA)

Leica LASX live cell imaging workstation with DMI8 inverted epifluorescence microscope with adaptive focus control (maintains focus during timelapse imaging). Equipped with 2 cameras: Andor iXON 897 Ultra back-illuminated EMCCD (512x512 16µm pixels, 16 bit) and Andor Neo sCMOS (2560x2160; 6.5µm pixels, 12 or 16 bit), motorised stage and PeCon incubator for multi-site timelapse imaging (fluorescence, phase contrast, DIC). Set up specifically for live cell imaging in combination with microfluidics apparatus.

For single crystal diffraction analysis.

Unit cell size range from 500-20000 A³

Sofware can also handle twinned samples.

Non destructive testing

Tension/compression & fatigue testing

Transmission electron Microscopy, imaging

Fatigue testing

MicroRaman analysis of materials, spot analysis and mapping

Fatigue testing

Drop weight impact testing

NMR Spec 400 MHz, solution state NMR, Multi nuclear, automated sample handling (robotic)

Leica AM TIRF MC (multi-colour) system for total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy or wide-field imaging. System attached to a Leica DMI 6000 inverted epifluorescence microscope with DIC available for some lenses. Simple selection of TIRF angle and rapid switching between laser lines (405, 488, 561nm). With Hamamatsu C9100-13 back-thinned EM-CCD camera. Temperature control chamber.

Material Conditioning

Facility comprising scanning and transmission electron microscopes and atomic force microscopes

Wind turbulence, aerodynamics

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometer.

High resolution matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometer with MALDI imaging capabilities.

Automated Fibre Placement

Fatigue testing

2 or 4 axis test machine, 100kN

A cutting edge piece of instrumentation that enables the user to separate a mixture of compounds by liquid chromatography and then determine their individual d13C values as they elute from the chromatographic system via an online oxidation process. The only caveat is the the mobile phase must be aqueous with no organic buffers. The system comprises a ThermoFisher Scientific Surveyor LC coupled via an LCIsoLink interface to a Delta V Plus isotope ratio mass spectrometer.

The Delta XP is capable of performing all of the analyses of earliar models but with improved electronics and enhanced computer control and automation. This particular instrument is interfaced, via a GCIII interface, to a ThermoElectron Trace GC equipped with a CTC GC Pal autosampler and is dedicated to compound specific δ15N analyses.

Leica confocal with one channel enabling sequential imaging of up to four fluorophores and phase contrast/DIC. On a DMi8 inverted microscope and equipped with four lasers - 405, 488, 532, 633 nm.

CT scanning

Triple quadrupole mass spectrometer.

NMR Spectrometer at 700 MHz, solution state chemical NMR, Biological/Protein NMR. Equipped with a 1.7 mm Triple resonance cryo-probe. The signal to noise for proton on a standard ethyl benzene (0.1%) sample is equivalent to > 30000:1 by mass sensitivity compared to 6000:1 for our closest 1H sensitive instrument the cryo-600.

Liquid handling robotics platform for assay based work with integrated plate reader.

Fatigue testing

We house genomics and transcriptomics equipment and expertise accessible to both internal and external researchers.

Embroidery, manufacture of carbon composite

Fatigue testing

Preparation of thin film samples. Chamber has four sputter guns for simultaneous deposition or sequential growth (heterostructures). Deuterium and oxygen reactive gas species are used for oxide and deuteride film synthesis. The system is equipped with several in-situ characterisation tools, including a quartz crystal balance, IGA and RHEED analysis.

Fatigue testing

Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer.

High sensitivity and spatial resolution qualitative analysis of surface elemental & molecular composition, imaging, depth profiling, high resolution ion milling.

Ion-trap mass spectrometer.

Nitrogen gas adsorption surface area and pore radius measurements of materials and powders

Microtome, ultra thin sectioning, electron microscopy