Molecular Genetics Lab

The Animal Breeding and Genetics group conducts research in the Molecular Genetics Laboratory in the Department of Animal Science located in the Kleberg Animal and Food Sciences Center on the campus of Texas A&M University at College Station.

This 2,400 square foot lab contains bench areas for 16 people, office space, a fully equipped dark room, a dedicated radiation area, chemical fumehoods, distilled and deionized water, autoclaves, and an ice machine. A walk-in cold room and freezer (300 sq. ft. each) separate the two halves of the laboratory.

Available equipment includes:

  • A QIAGEN Biorobot 3000
  • A Molecular Dynamics MegaBase DNA Analysis System
  • An ABI 377XL Sequencer with 96-lane upgrade
  • Three incubators
  • A Forma orbital shaker
  • Two Mettler balances
  • A Corning pH meter
  • Three hot plate stirrers
  • Four water baths
  • Two Savant micro-centrifuges
  • Nine Forma ultra-low freezers with CO2 back-up units
  • Five regular chest freezers
  • Two Perkin Elmer 9700
  • Two Techne DNA thermal cyclers
  • A DuPont RC-5C high speed centrifuge with SS-34 and GSA rotors
  • An IEC low speed centrifuge with adaptors for 96-well plates
  • A Biorad CHEF electrophoresis unit
  • A Life Technologies electroporator
  • ABI sequencing and genotyping analysis software integrated onto Macintosh 7500/100 Power PC, Macintosh 9500/132 Power PC, Macintosh G3 and Macintosh G4 computers

There are also two dual processor LINUX computers (part of the bioinformatics pipeline) that house relational databases and are used for statistical genetic analyses.

Dr. Gill uses the TAMU SGI-ORIGIN 3800, a 48 cpu supercomputer that runs the bioinformatics pipeline, including BLAST and FASTA searches. The lab’s fully-equipped dark room contains a Polaroid MP4 copy stand, Biorad Gel Documentation system, UV transilluminator and X-ray film processor.

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