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Research Resources

University

As one of the 16 colleges within Texas A&M University we have available to us the resources of the University. One of these resources is the Texas A&M Division of Research and its Office of the Vice President of Research. This division delivers strategic support to further the university's research mission.

An important part of the Vice President's office is its Research Development Services (URL) which helps investigators with their grant writing through a series of workships and one on one interactions. In addition, on their webpage are links to recent talks on how to write a fundalbe grant and what happens during Study Section Review.

At least once a year Research Development Services send a team to the School of Dentistry to help our investigators with their grant writing. Our office arranges one-on-one meetings with these grant writing experts and our faculty. They also present a seminar on timely topics. One was writing Specific Aims.

Another important University resource is the Texas A&M Institute for Genomic Medicine (URL) facilities breakthroughs in science and medicine by providing resouerces, training and services to the scientific community at Texas A&M.

Histology Core Facility

The Histology Core Facility provides oversight and technical support for a Histology Core Laboratory, a Confocal and Microscopy Image Analysis, a Scanning Electron Microscope, and Micro-Computed Tomography (μCT) Core.

This facility is staffed by two experienced, full-time technicians, one oversees the Histology and Confocal Cores housed in the main Texas A&M School of Dentistry building and the other is responsible for the μCT and SEM Cores, housed in the Sciences Building. Each component of the core facility is equipped as follows:

The Histology Core Laboratory is a 400-square-foot facility equipped with regular laboratory hardware, including:

  • Leitz 1512 microtome
  • VIP Tissue Tek processing station
  • PELCO Biowave Microwave (2)
  • Tissue Tek TEC Paraffin embedding station
  • Slide warmer (3)
  • Histo-orientator
  • Water bath (2)
  • Light microscopes
  • Knife sharpener (2)
  • Dual headed microscope (2)
  • Slide dryers (2)
  • Paraffin oven
  • Vibratomes (2)
  • Tricontinent Multiwash 3 plate washer
  • Equipment for bone histomorphology includes:
    • Buehler Isomet low speed saws (4)
    • Buehler grinding and polishing devices
    • Techcut low speed saws

Histology Service Fee

The Microscopy-Image Analysis Laboratory, is supervised by senior research faculty in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. The core contains:

  • Confocal Microscope System set up for live cell imaging: Leica SP5 (2010 model) confocal system with four lasers and five detectors used with an upright microscope: Laser lines 405, 458, 488, 514, 543, 561, 633.
  • Nikon epifluorescent microscope equipped for digital monochrome and color image analysis, an X-Y-Z encoded motorized stage, Pentium computer and Elements software, as well as a second Nikon microscope with a Sony DXC-390 camera and Bioquant NOVA software for bone histomorphometry.
  • Zeiss Axioplan microscope with a color digital camera for digital capture.
  • Leica DMRXE microscope with color digital camera for digital capture.

Confocal Microscope Fee

Other Histology Laboratory Imaging Equipment

The Scanning Electron Microscope area has a JEOL JSM-6010LA SEM and uses a field emission gun with cold cathode. The resolution is 1.5 nm in secondary electron imaging (SE) and 3.0 nm in backscattered electron imaging (BEI) at 30 kV. The airlock specimen chamber allows up to a 32 mm diameter sample, and the size can also be up to 150 mm without airlock. It has a motorized X-Y stage, automatic SEM condition setup based on sample type, simultaneous multiple live image and movie capture, easy sample navigation at 5x - 300,000x magnifications, quantitative and qualitative elements analysis, low and high vacuum operation and wireless capacity.

Scanning Electron Microscopy Fee

The Laser Capture Microdissection Microscope area contains a Leica CTR 6500 UV-laser based microdissection system purchased in 2013 which combines automated upright microscope architecture, three-dimensional optical control of the dissecting laser bean and the dissected area, non-contact tissue sampling and motorized post-dissection handling.

The Slice Scanning Olympus VS 120-S5 area contains an compound light microscope with an epi-florescence capability that allows standard slides (five 1x3, or two 2x3) to be manually loaded and scanned. All system components are designed to interact seamlessly, producing a fully-automated, high-speed scanning system with excellent flexibility and simple operation. The microscope is equipped with Fluorescence components and can produce fully-automated, high-speed, multi-channel fluorescence virtual slide system with flexibility and simple operation.

The Micro-Computed Tomography area contains a ScanCo MicroCT 35 Scanner with two terminals. It has a Windows-based microcomputer for image analysis; the associated Windows-based software includes Mimics, Geomagic Studio, Strand 7 Finite Element software, Analyze, and Imaris; and a Windows-based microcomputer set-up to use with Bioquant Osteo.

Micro-Computed Tomography (μCT) Fees

General Shared Core Equipment

The Core Equipment rooms are supervised by the faculty and are located in a central hallway on the fourth floor of the School of Dentistry within the Department of Biomedical Sciences. These rooms are equipped with the following:

  • Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer
  • BioRad CFX96 real-time PCR instruments (2)
  • Nucleovisino image station
  • Beckman L-60 ultracentrifuge
  • Beckman J2-21 centrifuges (2)
  • Beckman GS-6R tabletop centrifuge
  • Eppendorph refrigerated microcentrifuge
  • Universal 320 centrifuge
  • Thermo Scientific Savant 3PD1010 Speed-Vac concentrator
  • Millrock lyophilizer
  • New Brunswick shaking incubator
  • Packard Cobra auto-gamma counter
  • Packard 1900 TR liquid scintillation counter
  • Perkin Elmer 1450 Luminescence Counter
  • VWR UV 6300 PC Double Beam Spectro Photometer
  • LI - COR Odssey Infrared Imaging Sysytem
  • Molecular Devices 96 well plate reader
  • Cell culture facilities with a tissue dissection hood, laminar flow biosafety hood, and associated CO2 incubators and microscopes
  • 4ºC coldroom
  • Microm HM 500 M cryostat
  • Complete darkroom with sinks and automated film developer
  • -80ºC freezers
  • Glassware dishwasher
  • UV Crosslinker
  • Tissue homogenizers and sonicator

Bioengineering-Sciences Building Facilities occupy approximately 2000 square feet of laboratory space. This includes laboratories containing equipment for:

  • Shimadzu DSC-50 Differential Scanning Calorimeter; Thermal Analysis
  • ATR-FTIR. The Nicolet iS10 ATR-FTIR system offers an unprecedented level of integration between the spectrometer, software, and the accessory with standard features like SPV, QCheck, and Advanced ATR correction.
  • Nanodrop 2000. The NanoDrop 2000 is a microvolume spectrophotometer for measuring DNA, RNA, and protein. Using the patented sample retention system the NanoDrop 2000 accurately measures samples as small as 0.5 μL, and reports samples concentration, purity ratios, and full spectral data.
  • Labconco Freezone 2.5 L Freeze Dry System
  • MTS load cycle tester for dental material mechanical characterization
  • Instron Models 1125 (20,000 lbs. maximum) universal test machine; Struers FM-7 digital microhardness tester (load range 50-1000 g).
  • 2 Buehler Isomet low-speed saws; Vector-Beta, Simplimet3, Ecomet3, and Vibromet2 polishing stations; JEOL smart coater gold, carbon, and nickel coating systems
  • Shimadzu TGA-50 Thermogravimetric Analyzer; Shimadzu TMA-50H Thermomechanical Analyzer
  • 3D printer: Robocast Assisted Deposition System EBD-2011-05 system is equipped with a multi-dimension stage controller for the generation of scaffolds for tissue engineering. The system consists of an extrusion based delivery system that has a syringe pump controlling on the inlet and robotic assisted extrusion of scaffold parts on the outlet.
  • Vacuum and atmospheric pressure furnaces for applications in sintering or debinding of materials
  • THINKYTM Centrifugal mixer for de-aeration and mixing of liquid slurries used for 3D printing applications
  • Fluorometer: The QuantiFluorTM-P fluorometer is a lightweight, handheld instrument configured for many of the fluorescent probes commonly used in nucleic acid and protein quantitation.
  • Electrospinning system: This electrospinning system with the Spraydrum rotating drum collector (CAT000003) has a unique linear motion emitter, which could fabricate the electrospun membrane with uniform thickness and controlled orientation
  • In addition, the new bioengineerng faculty will be acquiring in the next year additional specialized equipment; for example: jetlab®4 xl-B Print Station with Ultra Micro-Balance.

Centers at the School of Dentistry

The Center for Craniofacial Research and Diagnosis (CCRD) is a distinct multidisciplinary center of research excellence that resides within the School of Dentistry. The mission of the CCRD is to increase our understanding of normal and pathological craniofacial biology leading to better patient treatment of the craniofacial region. Organizationally, the CCRD represents a consortium of both internal and external related, but independent research programs that share a common interest in basic craniofacial biology with the translational goal of new treatments of the craniofacial region. The CCRD is organized specifically to facilitate integration between basic and clinical sciences that cuts across all departments and research /clinical programs within Texas A&M School of Dentistry. An important aspect of the CCRD is synergistic interactions with other Texas A&M Health Science Center Colleges, Texas A&M Colleges, and local institutions studying the basic and clinical biology of the craniofacial region leading to improved patient treatment. The CCRD also supports advanced postgraduate training in the area of craniofacial biology. The primary goal of the CCRD is to provide a forum to increase funded research and related programmatic activities leading to greater understanding of the etiology, natural history, diagnosis, and treatment of developmental abnormalities and functional disorders in the craniofacial region. Such knowledge will lead to new and improved treatments of developmental, disease, and functional disorders of the craniofacial region.

The specific goals of the CCRD are to provide the environment, resources, and a multidisciplinary-based organization that will facilitate:

  1. expansion of interdisciplinary approaches to research related to basic and clinical sciences
  2. hiring of funded clinical translational researchers and increasing the funding of current researchers
  3. improving techniques for diagnosis of craniofacial disorders associated with growth, function, and aging
  4. enhancing treatment of diseases and disorders of the craniofacial complex
  5. training of the next generation of physicians and scientists fully engaged in translational research

School Clinics

The School of Dentistry clinic, which contains 308 chairs, provide the School's primary source for instruction in clinical dentistry. In addition to large clinics devoted to general restorative dentistry and undergraduate dental student instruction, there are graduate clinics in Advanced Education in General Dentistry, Endodontics, Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics, Pediatric Dentistry, Periodontics, Prosthodontics, as well as graduate programs in Dental Public Health and Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology. The School has over 120,000 patient visits in its main clinic and community clinics, and many of the patients are voluntarily involved in a wide variety of research projects. These projects include dental implants, orthodontic studies, epidemiologic studies of oral health disparities and health care delivery, and studies on alternate approaches to prevention of early childhood caries. The School is a member of the Consortium for Oral Health Related Research, which promotes research interactions among the nation's dental schools. The School is also involved in the national Practice Based Dental Research Network, which promotes the interactions of researchers and dental practitioners.

Baylor Health Sciences Library

The Baylor Health Sciences Library offers a full range of services and resources in support of the educational, research and clinical programs of the School.