Plant Tissue Culture Biotechnology Laboratory
Room B, Carver Hall
Capabilities and instrumentation
- Lab performs plant tissue culture and plant molecular biology
- OHAUS analytical balance
- Eppendorf centrifuge 5414C
- Sterilmatic Autoclave
- Three thermolyne stirring hot plates
- Maxima vacuum pump
- Cryo-fridge
- Orion pH meter
- Envirico laminar flo hoods
- Oxford micro pipettes
- Baxter sterile loop bacteriology incinerator
- Fisher vortex genie shakers
Plant Biotechnology Teaching and Research Laboratory
Room 116, Carver Hall
Capabilities
- Plant tissue culture
- Micropropagation
- Genetic transformation for value-added traits
- Biosensing for radiation and toxic contaminants
- Disease, insect and resistance/tolerance
- Phytoremediation
- Somaclonal variation
- Synthetic (artificial) seeds
- Rescue of endangered species and mass production of rare and unique plant species
- Secondary production for pharmaceuticals and neutraceuticals (or plant-made pharmaceuticals and neutraceuticals)
- Somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis
- Removal of plant diseases, particularly viruses
- Germplasm conservation
Instrumentation
- Laminar flow hood
- Centrifuge
- Gel electrophoresis apparatus
- Bacticinerator
- Biolistic particle bombardment device
- Autoclave
- Deep freezer
- Gel drier
- Controlled environmental chamber
- Light banks, etc. to implement basic and applied plant biotechnology researches
Research
- Efficiency improvement of in vitro regeneration for chestnut transformation to enhance blight resistance
- Protocol development for mass production of high demand pearlbush for the horticulture industry
- Micropropagation of galax as an alternate cash crop for the farming community
- Guava tissue culture to develop an efficient in vitro regeneration system to produce (plant-made) cholesterol-reducing phytochemicals for the pharmaceutical and neutriceutical industries
- Transformation of guava to enhance cold hardiness
Soil Chemistry and Fertility Laboratories
Rooms 126, Carver Hall
Capabilities and instrumentation
- Analysis of chemical elements, plant nutrients and environmental pollutants in plant, soil, water and environmental samples
- Atomic absorption spectrophotometer
- Research Environmental soil chemistry, including heavy metals
Soil Physical Properties Laboratory
Room 139 Carver Hall
Capabilities
Analysis on the physical properties of soil, including:
- Soil texture
- Particle size distribution
- Plasticity limits
- Soil water retention
- Soil porosity and pore-size distribution
- Aggregate stability
- Aggregate size and aggregate distribution
- Soil shear strength
- Soil penetrability
- Saturated hydraulic conductivity
- Soil bulk density
- Soil particle density, and clod density
Activities
- Processing of samples collected from several agricultural/environmental experiments that monitor soil physical properties as a function of soil/land management
Food Research Laboratory
Room 163, Carver Hall
Capabilities and instrumentation
- Mineral analysis (ICP spectrometer)
- Surface area analysis
- Freeze-drying and dehydration of samples
- Hydraulic Press
- Kjeldahl distillation
- 15 unit stirring system
- Chemical samples preparation and analysis
Research
- Carbon preparation and characterization
- Carbon adsorption studies
- Vegetable washing and sanitation
- Dehydration of food
