The Biochemistry Division is mainly housed on the fourth floor of Leigh Hall, originally built in the 1920’s and completely
renovated in 1994. This combination provides an aesthetically pleasing mixture of traditional Florida architecture and
modern laboratory facilities. This space includes facilities for organic synthesis, molecular biology, protein
purification and a computer laboratory.
Each group has the specific instrumentation needed for their research located within their own lab spaces. This includes
centrifuges, UV-Vis spectrophotometers, HPLC, GC and GC/MS instrumentation as well as apparatus for molecular cloning and
DNA sequencing. The Division jointly owns several autoclaves, a preparative ultracentrifuge and a -80°C freezer as well
as a cold room and dark room. In addition, all students have round-the-clock access to an FTIR as well as several
departmental NMR spectrometers with multi-nuclear capabilities (five 300 and
one 500 MHz instruments). A 600 MHz NMR instrument is available on-campus as part of the
Center for Structural Biology. The Chemistry Department also has extensive
MS and X-ray crystallography facilities, both directed by
full-time faculty members along with fully-staffed glass, electronic and machine shops.
Groups in the Biochemistry Division have workstations with software packages for molecular modeling and semi-empirical and
ab initio computational studies. Packages for large-scale DNA and protein sequence analysis are also installed on
computers in the Stewart and Benner groups. These workstations and personal computers in the laboratories are networked
to the Internet and provide electronic mail and full Internet access. U.F. faculty and graduate students are also eligible
for free GatorLink accounts that provides dial-up access to the Internet.
The Interdisclipinary Center for Biotechnology Research (ICBR) is an extensive
network of on-campus core laboratories that provide ready access to a variety of services related to biochemistry and
molecular biology including protein and peptide sequencing and analysis, DNA sequencing, monoclonal antibody production
and many others. In addition, the Education Core offers a number of
hands-on short courses in techniques such as cloning, antibody applications and protein biochemistry. These are
particularly valuable for students who would like to move into biochemical research but lack a previous background in the
experimental techniques.
Several libraries on campus house a comprehensive collection of books and journals necessary for research. In addition,
access to ISI's Web of Science and several other on-line databases are provided free to all networked computers with U.F.
Internet addresses through the library web page.
In their first semester, entering students are given a desk in one of the research labs so that they can interact with the
other students in the Division and learn first-hand about the research. Once a student joins a research group, they are
assigned a specific desk and laboratory work area in that group.
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