Laboratory Facilities

The Challis 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 dedciated 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 microorganims; two dedicated instrument laboratories; a radiochemistry laboratory; a dark room; and office space for 50 researchers.

Instruments

The Challis Group has access to state-of-the-art instrumentation, including: Bruker 700 and 500 MHz NMR spectrometers equipped with TCI and DCH cyroprobes, respectively; Bruker MaXis, MaXis Impact and MaXis II UHPLC-ESI-Q-TOF, and Bruker Autoflex and Ultraflex Extreme MALDI-TOF high resolution mass spectrometers; 3 Bruker ion trap LC-ESI-MS/MS instruments; a Varian GC-MS instrument; Agilent 1100 analytical HPLC and 1200/1260 preparative HPLC instruments; a lyophiliser; Six New Brunswick Innova 44/44R Incubator Shakers; a five litre fermentor; two autoclaves; various centrifuges; a Constant Systems Cell Disruptor; GE Healthcare Akta Purifier and Akta Pure FPLC instruments; Perkin Elmer LAMDA 35 UV-Vis and LS 55 fluorescence spectrometers; 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.