Biochip Sensor Array Research Facilities

In the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department at The University of Texas at Austin, Professor McDevitt now directs a team of 21 co-workers on a variety of research projects. The McDevitt group currently occupies ~5,500 square feet of research and office space. Most of the laboratory space has been newly renovated and is well equipped with state-of-the-art equipment as needed to support the research in this area. Twelve fully functional, computer controlled electronic taste chip laboratory stations have been established in the McDevitt laboratory (component cost of ~$920K).

The following dedicated laboratory facilities exist as components of the McDevitt group research infrastructure:

Bead lab: ~1,000 square feet is dedicated to the chemical modification of the customized bead micro-reactor elements.

Optics lab: ~750 square feet is dedicated to optical instrument design and testing.

Laser Ablation lab: ~500 square feet is dedicated to thin film deposition and laser processing of microfluidic structures.

Blood lab: ~1200 square feet is dedicated to the measurement of clinical samples.

Materials Synthesis lab: ~1000 square feet is dedicated to wet synthetic procedures including the generation of the polymer spheres as required for the bead-based assays.

Tissue Culture Lab: ~125 square feet is dedicated to growth and handling of cultured cells.

In the recent past, the University of Texas at Austin has established the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology (ICMB) as an organized research unit to focus closely on important developments in genetics, cell biology, and molecular biology. Built at a cost of approximately $28M, the ICMB provides state-of-the-art research laboratory facilities for 25 faculty researchers. In addition, the Microelectronics Research Center (MRC) has provided an excellent facility wherein the work on the fabrication of micromachined structures for the electronic taste chip is completed. Approximately 55,000 square ft. (60%) of this $30M facility is occupied by the MRC, including 15,000 square ft. of characterization laboratory space. The McDevitt group utilizes regularly the resources at the ICMB and MRC.

The Texas Materials Institute (TMI) was established in 1998 by the University of Texas at Austin to promote research in the field of materials science and engineering. TMI provides access to instrumentation for materials research at a core central facility and through specialized equipment housed in the laboratories of individual faculty members. In 2000, the Center for Nano- and Molecular Science and Technology (CNM) was established within the TMI to foster research in nanotechnology. The CNM currently provides access to $10M of equipment and has recently held the groundbreaking for a $35M building to house the center. John McDevitt is a member of the TMI, which draws its faculty from the College of Engineering and the College of Natural Sciences. The members of the McDevitt group regularly utilize the resources of the TMI and the CNM.

Clinical: Approximately 1200 square feet bio-level-2 facility has been established in the McDevitt laboratories. The area includes cell culture, bio-safety hoods, and 8 customized lab-on-a-chip measurement stations including state of the art imaging and fluid delivery capabilities.

Computer: The McDevitt lab has 30 PCs, most 1 GHz or faster, available for use by members of the group. Data can be stored in a networked Buffalo Terastation 1GB. In addition to standard productivity software, group members use Image Pro Plus for image manipulation and analysis, Sigma Plot for data analysis, and SolidWorks for 3D modeling. A 6 member departmental IT staff provides support for software and hardware issues. An adjacent building contains the ACES Visualization Lab which houses a 24-processor SGI Onyx2 Supercomputer and a 128-node Compaq graphics workstation supercluster. The McDevitt Lab utilizes this facility for fluid modeling simulations.

McDevitt Lab: Twelve fully functional, computer controlled electronic taste chip laboratory stations have been established in the McDevitt laboratory (component cost of ~$920K). The typical station is built around an Olympus BX2 light microscope head unit with a mercury lamp for epi-illumination and filter cubes matched to the fluorophores that we conjugate to antibodies for detection of analytes. The head unit is supported by a custom base of our design and augmented with pumps for fluidics and a research grade digital camera. Each station has a dedicated PC image capture and control of the fluidics system.

Specifically the stations are:
2--Olympus SZX12 stereoscope stations with Amersham FPLC pump systems
2--Olympus BX60 microscope stations, capable of trans and epi illumination
7--“typical” stations
1--automated station consisting of a motorized BX2 head, Prior stage, FAI 4 pump/6 valve peristaltic pump, and Ai Scientific autosampler

The McDevitt group has recently purchased a FC500 Flow Cytometer system from Beckman Coulter. The research grade unit is capable of performing 5-color analysis utilizing a dual laser platform, 488nm Argon Ion laser and 633nm red diode, with multi-carousel tube loader for high sample throughput.

The McDevitt group has established a highly functional rapid prototyping facility for the design, fabrication and testing of microfluidic components. The facility includes laminate processing and excimer laser ablation capabilities.

Departmental: Standard IR, LRMS, and HRMS spectrometers, GC.MS (Finnegan), NMR’s (Nicolet NT200, NT360, QE300, GN500, Bruker AC250, Varian 300 and 500), Siemens P3 and P4 X-ray diffractometer equipped with Nicolet LT2A low temperature device. Beckman DU70 and DU640 UV/Vis spectrophotometer, Waters 900E HPLC pump and 991 photodiode array detector, Vac atmosphere one man dry box, BAS CV50-W potentiostat, various lyophilizers, DNA synthesizer, PCR machine, Hewlett Packard 5890 Series II GC.

ICMB: The following instrumentation and facilities are available as needed: Lecia SP2 AOBS confocal microscope, Lecia Ultracut UCT ultramicrotome and cryo-ultramicrotome, Microm HM550 cryostat, Tousimis critical point dryer, Bal-Tec MED 020 high vacuum coater, AB 3100 and 3700 DNA analyzers, AB 7700 real time PCR.

TMI/CNM: The following instrumentation and facilities are available as needed: JOEL 2010F TEM, Hitachi S-4500 SEM, Leo 1530 SEM, FEI DB235 dual beam SEM/FIB with Zyvex F100 nanomanipulator