Molecular Biology

The recently refurbished Molecular Biology Facility is a one-stop laboratory for the analysis of nucleic acid from both natural and cultured communities, for synthetic biology and basic biochemical analysis. The laboratory is equipped with microcentrifuges, shakers, ovens, a DNA&RNA extraction robot, gel electrophoresis (agarose and acrylamide), vortexes, PCR machines and real-time PCR machines.

Alongside the Molecular Biology Facility is a newly refurbished Microbiology laboratory containing all the equipment required for the study and culturing of marine organisms (viruses, bacteria, archaea, fungi and plankton), including a light chamber, microbiological containment cabinets (class II ventilated hood), orbital shakers, centrifuges, a series of plate readers for automated assays using fluorescence and luminescence and a dark room for microscopy.

The molecular biology laboratory in the School of Biological and Marine Sciences is equipped for genetic, genomic and transcriptomic analyses. Current research focuses on molecular ecology, evolutionary genetics and genomics, phylogenomics, adaptation and plasticity.

This research covers a range of systems from the terrestrial (fungi, insects, frogs, reptiles) through limnoterrestrial (tardigrades, rotifers and nematodes) to fully marine (amphipods, decapods, fish).

Facilities available support sample storage (at -20C and -80C), DNA, RNA and protein isolation and quantification, visualisation, PCR, RT-qPCR, RADSeq and whole genome/transcriptome library prep, nucleic acid and protein electrophoresis, Western/immunoblotting blotting and imaging.