Research Facilities

BMBCB researchers and students benefit from a number of shared facilities available at Northwestern University and throughout the Chicagoland area.  Two of these facilities, the Keck Biophysics Facility and the High Throughput Analysis Facility, are housed within the department. Both of these facilities have recently undergone major upgrades and renovations, ensuring that they will continue to provide the most comprehensive service and state-of-the-art equipment in their respective fields.

Facility Highlights

Keck Biophysics Facility

The Keck Biophysics Facility, housed in the Center for Structural Biology, is a unique resource for studying the structures, dynamics and interactions of biological and synthetic macromolecules. This shared research center provides access to a comprehensive collection of 22 research instruments including fluorimeters and spectrophotometers, calorimeters, analytical ultracentrifuge and light scattering instruments. The Keck Facility was created by Northwestern University's Center for Structural Biology with grants from the W.M.Keck Foundation and additional support from the NIH, the Rice Foundation, and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

High Throughput Analysis Facility

The Northwestern University High Throughput Analysis Laboratory (HTA) is a shared, open-access resource established in 2004; they provide academic, industrial, and private researchers with equipment and expertise for the development and execution of high throughput biological analysis and chemical library screening. 

HTA is fully equipped with state-of-the-art robots for micro-liter and nano-liter liquid handling, robots for automated microbial culture handling, plate readers for target-based assays and phenotypic assays using photometric and radioactive label readouts and with an automated fluorescence microscopy system and sophisticated software for quantitative imaging analysis in high content screening/analysis. HTA provides robust automated solution to users, assists users in design HTP experiments and data automation, provides access to robotic equipment, provides grant preparation assistance for HTP related projects and collaborates in grant applications with an HTP component.  HTA manages on-site access to advanced whole-genome RNAi collections for knockdown of mouse and human gene expression from Open Biosystems.  Please contact HTA for a complete description of facility capabilities or to discuss your project.

Facility List

Research Facilties

Imaging/Cell Imaging Facilities

Structural Biology and Biophysics Facilities