Laboratory Facilities

The Challis / Alkhalaf Group benefits from access to outstanding facilities. It is housed in the Chemical Biology Research Facility (CBRF), a purpose-built £1M laboratory and office complex supported by a dedicated technician that was opened in October 2009 and underwent expansion in the summer of 2016. The CBRF is among the best facilities in the world for research at the interface of Chemistry and Biology. It contains: dedicated Biology and Chemistry laboratories (with bench space for up to 35 researchers and 10 fume hoods, respectively); a spacious cold room; dedicated laboratories for growth of BHSL 1 and 2 microorganisms; three dedicated instrument laboratories; a protein crystallography laboratory; a dark room; and office space for 50 researchers.

Instruments

The Challis / Alkhalaf Group has access to state-of-the-art instrumentation, including: Bruker Avance NEO700, AV600, and HD500 NMR spectrometers (700 and 500 MHz instruments equipped with TXO and DCH cyroprobes, respectively); Bruker Compact and MaXis II UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF high resolution LC-MS systems; 3 Bruker ion trap LC-ESI-MS/MS instruments; a Varian GC-MS instrument; An SPT Labtech Mosquito protein crystallisation robot; Agilent 1100 analytical HPLC and 1200/1260 preparative HPLC instruments; three lyophilisers; Seven New Brunswick Innova 44/44R Incubator Shakers; a five litre fermenter; two autoclaves; various centrifuges; a Constant Systems Cell Disruptor; GE Healthcare Akta Prime, Akta Purifier, and Akta Pure FPLC instruments; Several UV-Vis spectrometers, a fluorescence spectrometer and a fluorescence plate reader; a Thermo Scientific NanoDrop spectrophotometer; a glove box for anaerobic protein purification and analysis; three rotary evaporators and a full range of glassware and other equipment to support synthetic chemistry.