Facilities and Resources

Located on the University of Virginia's Central Grounds in Charlottesville, the Schools of Medicine, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Engineering, and the Computer Center occupy buildings within a ten minute walk. The laboratories associated with the School of Medicine are in the Jordan Medical Education Building, the MR-4 research building, and renovated space in portions of the original hospital building on Jefferson Park Avenue. Jordan Hall houses the five basic science departments as well as a Vivarium and many of the core laboratories. Almost all of the space on floors 3-7 is available for student training purposes. A new Biomedical Engineering and Research Facility (MR-5) is being built, and MR-6 is in the architectural drawing stage.

Faculty not in in Jordan's departmental space may also be found in laboratories designated for the appropriate Centers:

  • The Markey Center is housed in 10,000 sq. ft. of newly renovated space on the top floor of the Old Medical School. Drs. Brautigan, Lannigan, Macara, Paschal, and Sturgill are located there.
  • Drs. T. Braciale, Engelhard, and Ravichandran are located in the Beirne Carter Center in MR-4.
  • Drs. Camerini, Hammerskjold, and Rekosh are housed in the Thaler Center on the 7th floor of Jordan.
  • Drs. S. and T. Parsons, M. Weber of the Signaling in Time & Space Program Project, along with Drs. Owens (Vascular Smooth Muscle Program Project) are situated on the 2nd floor of Jordan, in Cancer Center basic research space.
  • Drs. Bobak, Chapman, Fu, and Petri are in MR-4 or in newly renovated facilities in the Old Hospital, both of which are immediately adjacent to Jordan Hall.

Research Facilities and Cores

Major Research Facilities and Cores


Courtesy of Dr. Joyce Hamlin,
Department of Biochemistry &
Molecular Genetics
Funds to establish and maintain core laboratories have come from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and several private foundations. University academic development funds, contributions from the Cancer Center, private endowment funds, and Commonwealth of Virginia Scientific Research funds are used on a matching basis. The initiative of research faculty, in cooperation with the offices of the Vice President for Scientific Research and the Dean of the School of Medicine, have fulfilled common needs for facilities throughout the University. Information on some of the resources available to trainees is outlined below.

The Pratt Fund: A private bequest to the University earmarked specifically for scientific research, which has grown to more than $30,000,000. A percentage of the interest on this money goes to the School of Medicine and the science departments in the College of Arts and Sciences. In the School of Medicine, the Pratt funds are awarded on a competitive basis and are used to support multi-user facilities (often on a matching basis with external agencies), such as the ones described below.

ITC-Academic Computing Health Sciences (ITC-ACHS) computing facility: A collaborative effort between Information Technology and Communication (ITC) and the Health Sciences Center (HSC), jointly funded and directed by both organizations. The Directors are Dr. William R. Pearson, an acknowledged international expert in development of software for DNA sequence analysis, of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, and Terry Lockard. ITC-ACHS supports specialized biomedical research applications in:

  • health informatics
  • biostatistics
  • data visualization
  • image analysis
  • molecular modeling
  • molecular biology (DNA and protein sequence analysis)
  • image processing.

Biomolecular Research Facility: Provides a range of services for analyzing and synthesizing DNA, peptides and proteins using instruments and expertise not available to individual laboratories. The Director is Dr. Jay Fox, a Professor in the Department of Microbiology. Services include:

  • automated high throughput DNA sequencing (and Genescans)
  • oligonucleotide synthesis
  • protein sequencing (including Edman chemistry and reverse phase chromatography, or dual tandem mass spectrometry)
  • peptide synthesis
  • amino acid analysis
  • carbohydrate chemistry
  • protein chemistry (e.g. enzymatic and cyanogen bromide digestions of proteins, HPLC separation of the resultant peptides and analysis by Edman sequencing and/or mass spectrometry).
  • In 1999 special NCI-supplemental funding, augmenting institutional funds, established a DNA Array Core facility. The Core functions within the Biomolecular Research Facility to provide state of the art DNA array capabilities.

Central Electron Microscopy Facility: This comprehensive facility provides high quality equipment and service necessary to do transmission, scanning, and confocal microscopy. The core director is Dr. Charles Flickinger of the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy. The facility has

  • JEOL 100-CX TEMSCAN high resolution scanning transmission electron microscope
  • JEOL JSM6400 scanning electron microscope
  • JEOL 100-S transmission electron microscope.
  • microtomes
  • Cryo-ultramicrotome
  • Balzers high resolution vacuum evaporator/shadower
  • JEOL vacuum evaporator
  • equipment for preparation of scanning EM samples
  • Reichert freeze substitution processing unit
  • Zeiss LSM Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope
  • Assistance in specimen preparation
  • Training for investigators in equipment use
  • Technical assistance for special applications such as immuno-cytochemistry, autoradiography, cryotechniques, negative staining and image processing.

Flow Cytometry Core Facility:

The Flow Cytometry Facility at UVA has undergone a major reorganization and expansion during the spring of 2002 that will significantly increase the quality and breadth of services provided by the facility. The reorganization of the facility was necessitated by the extraordinary increase in the user base over the past three to four years and includes multiple disciplines that are components of the Cancer Center including immunology, cell biology, cell signaling, differentiation, yeast and chromatin structure and pathogenesis as well as great need for more sophisticated services than have been available in the past. Reorganization of the Flow Cytometry Facility includes the hiring director for the facility, Joanne Lannigan, M.S., new equipment and new physical space. In addition to the Becton-Dickinson FACSCalibur, a newly purchased Becton-Dickinson FACSVantage SE flow cytometer fitted for high speed sorting, sorting through non rectangular windows and single cell cloning, is available. The facility occupies space in Jordan Hall (room 7065).

Lymphocyte Culture Center: The Center makes available the most current technology and expertise for the construction and selection of lymphocyte-myeloma hybridomas for the production of monoclonal antibodies. Services are customized to the specific requirements of individual investigators to optimize the recovery of appropriate antigen specific monoclonal antibodies. The Director of the facility is Dr. William Sutherland. The LCC provides

  • expertise in the use of these reagents in basic research programs.
  • approved animal experimentation protocols for all aspects of monoclonal antibody production, including immunizations, sera collections, intrasplenic injection and ascites production.
  • staff to immunize mice and rats, collect sera, perform all cell culture aspects of hybridoma production and selection, and develop ELISA assays for sera titration and specific monoclonal antibody detection.
  • cryopreservation, storage, and recovery of cryopreserved cells.
  • monoclonal antibody isotyping and sub-isotyping
  • bulk monoclonal antibody production as either ascites or as culture supernatants in either fetal bovine serum-containing medium or in a defined medium (protein free)
  • monoclonal and polyclonal antibody purification by affinity chromatography on engineered recombinant Protein G columns
  • monoclonal antibody biotinylation
  • antibody inventory, storage and world-wide shipping.

Radioimmunoassay (RIA) Core: The core currently offers 12 different radioimmunoassays (cAMP, cGMP, various hormone assays, etc.), HPLC and ELISA instrumentation and the synthesis of radioligands to researchers on a fee for service basis. The purpose of the core is to provide these assays, instruments, and ligands with high quality control at a lower cost than can be achieved in individual laboratories. The Director of the RIA core is George Vandenhoff, Ph.D.


Courtesy of Dr. Margo Roberts,
Department of Microbiology

Small Animal Multi-Modality Imaging Core (SAMMIC): The core provides researchers the most current technology and expertise for noninvasively obtaining structural and functional images of small animals (such as mice, rats, rabbits, etc.). The technology is particularly valuable for imaging structures such as tumors, etc., in longitudinal studies. Dr. Stuart S. Berr is in charge of the magnetic resonance aspects of the SAMMI, and Dr. Mark Williams is in charge of x-ray and gamma imaging. These individuals each have over 10 years of experience in this area and provide advice to investigators on scientific aspects of the design, execution, and interpretation of imaging experiments. The facility offers

  • state of the art Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy
  • Digital X-Ray Computed Tomography
  • Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography
  • The facility can tailor imaging modalities to meet investigator's needs.
  • 4.7 Tesla Varian SIS200/400 NMR system capable of performing MR imaging and spectroscopy on small animals (or tissue specimens) up to 18 cm in diameter.
  • functional information using noninvasive 1H, 31P, and 13C spectroscopy, MR perfusion imaging, and radiopharmaceutical tracer imaging.

Research Histology Shared Facility: This core facility provides histology and immunohistology services, including tissue fixation and processing, tissue sectioning, section staining, immunostaining and in situ hybridization analysis. The facility is fully staffed with experts in each respective area and directed by Dr. Ken Tung, an experienced immunopathologist.

Central Tissue Culture Core Facility: Although nearly all cell culture work is done in individual laboratories, this facility provides a central stockroom for purchasing many tissue culture supplies at discount rates and also provides a number of specialized cell culture services that may not be in place in individual laboratories because of cost, infrequent use, etc. The core plays an important role in training graduate students and post-docs in methods of cell culture. The facility is under the daily direction of Dr. Nena Fox. Some examples of services:

  • cryopreservation and storage of cell lines
  • baculovirus transfections and viral titering
  • mycoplasma testing
  • bulk preparation of cell culture media and supplements
  • use of a Biolumin 960 plate reader
  • culture of human cell lines
  • growth of large scale roller bottle suspension cultures

Tissue Procurement Facility (TPF): The primary function of the TPF is to serve as a clearinghouse for the collection and distribution of human tissues to scientists involved in investigative studies in humans. Implicit within this primary goal are five related objectives:

  1. prompt collection of human tissue from multiple clinical service areas in the medical center;
  2. preservation and storage of human tissues for use in genetic, molecular, histochemical, and tissue culture studies;
  3. distribution of tissues for research use;
  4. quality assurance;
  5. assimilation and distribution of clinical, cellular, and molecular data regarding each specimen collected.

This shared resource aids investigators by providing services that are more timely, comprehensive, and efficient than individual investigators can provide themselves. This is of increasing importance for genetic screening, array analyses, etc. as the human genome is sequenced. The facility is co-directed by Dr. Craig Slingluff (an Associate Professor of Surgery) and Dr. Wendy Golden, who also serves as the Director of the Medical Genetics Laboratory.


Courtesy of Dr. Sonia Pearson-
White, Department of Microbiology 
Transgenic Mouse and Homologous Recombination Gene Targeting Facility:
Created to provide transgenic mice in a controlled and efficient manner. The facility is located within a microbiologic barrier in the Jordan Hall Vivarium and is directed by Dr. Sonia Pearson-White, an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology.
  • produces transgenic mice from purified DNA samples provided by individual investigators. Over 130 independent founder lines have been produced in the last year.
  • assists investigators in constructing gene knockouts through homologous recombination. This includes assisting investigators in the design of the gene targeting construct and in the transfection, selection, and characterization of embryonic stem cells.
  • perform ES injections and assist in genotyping mouse chimeras.

PharmaBiologicals: A Program for Natural Products Discovery

PharmaBiologicals Drug Discovery Program: This interdisciplinary collaborative project involves research in the discovery of novel bioactive compounds and training of scientists in the process of drug discovery. The program involves a collaboration between Dr. Sidney Hecht, Professor of Chemistry and Biology in the College of Arts & Sciences and former Vice-President for Research and Development at Smith-Kline Beecham, and biomedical scientists in the School of Medicine, including Dr. David Brautigan and Dr. Deborah Lannigan in the Center for Cell Signaling, home of the TECAN instruments, and J. Thomas Parsons, Chairman of the Department of Microbiology.

The PharmaBiologicals group works with faculty who have specific biological targets for study and involves them in devising and validating screening assays. Arrays of botanical extracts in microplates are made available, and once leads are found the choice extracts are subjected to chromatographic fractionation, followed by structure proof of the active constituents.

This effort utilizes the outstanding expertise in natural product chemistry and the availability of a proprietary collection of botanical extracts, derived from plant materials originally accumulated by the National Cancer Institute.

The program also offers an opportunity for students and research fellows supported by the Cancer Training Grant to learn about and become involved in the process of drug discovery outside of an industrial setting.

Claude Moore Health Sciences Library

  • Director of the Library: Dr. Linda Watson
  • efficient, well stocked library, subscribes to over 2,800 journals in the clinical and basic sciences and possesses over 80,000 monographs and 4,400 audiovisual programs.
  • adjacent to Jordan Hall and in close proximity to all of the laboratories in which Cancer Training Grant trainees work.
  • maintains access to computerized data bases
  • has direct on-line access to journals that can be downloaded directly to laboratory computers
  • currently undergoing major renovation including upgrading and expanding computer capabilities, increasing the number of small group private discussion/study rooms, and many other valuable amenities for accessing scientific information.
  • equip users with the skills and knowledge to organize and manage information effectively throughout their careers.
  • services and systems are linked with institutional networks.
  • serves as a biomedical information resource for the University at large, the local community and the Commonwealth through proactive outreach services, and the nation through cooperative programs with other libraries and agencies.

Vivarium: Extensive and state-of-the-art animal care facilities are available in Jordan Hall, MR-4, and the Old Hospital. Two full-time veterinarians oversee the Vivarium, which is AAALAC accredited and also houses Transgenic Animal Facilities and the Embryonic Stem Cell Facility of the Cardiovascular Research Center. Dr. Stanley Feldman, D.V.M., Ph.D. is Director of the Vivarium.

  • 30,000 sq. ft. of space designed for housing laboratory animals.
  • equipment for surgery and establishment of germ-free environments for work with nude and SCID mice or other immuno-compromised animals.
  • animal biosafety level 2 facilities for research involving infectious agents and viral gene therapy vectors
  • facilities for administration of radionuclides
  • metabolic caging is available.
  • the Comparative Animal Sciences Department of the Medical School offers consultation services in various procedures or will perform many procedures on a fee-for-services basis.

X-Ray crystallography

X-Ray structural work is primarily conducted in the laboratories of Drs. Derewenda, Wiener, Kretsinger and Rastinejad in the Departments of Biochemistry, Biology and Pharmacology. These laboratories are equipped with rotating anode generators with focusing mirrors on both ports. There are three independent data collection systems: a Mac Science DIP 2020, an R-AXIS IV and a MAR image-plate detector, each controlled by an HKL or SGI workstation. Each detector has been equipped with a low-temperature device (X-STREAM from MSC) to allow for low-temperature data collection. The individual laboratories operate a network of SGI, Digital Alpha, Macintosh and PC computers using Unix and Linux operating systems. All of the commonly used crystallographic software packages are installed on these computers. Some of the systems, as well as much of other laboratory equipment (HPLC, crystallization robot, spectrophotometer, etc.), are shared to minimize maintenance costs, but also to allow for free flow of expertise and information among the laboratories.