Equipment and Methods

Chemistry section

• Rational Drug Design, Computer Aided Drug Design (CADD), molecular modelling, molecular docking, pharmacophore models
• Using MOE (Molecular Operating Environment) software package developed by Chemical Computing Group, Montreal, QC, Canada
• Microwave assisted organic synthesis (Microwave reactor CEM Discover with autosampler Exlorer 24)
• Preparative (flash) chromatography -  Instrumentation: Combiflash Rf (Teledyne Isco), puriFlash XS420+ Ultra (Interchim) and puriFlash 5.125 (UV-VIS + ELSD) (Interchim)
• Calculations, prediction and experimental measurement of physico-chemical properties (mainly log P,  pK_a)
• Structure-Activity Relationships (SAR)

Group of microbiology and immunology

• Microscopy - confocal laser scanning microscope - Nikon Eclipse Ti, fluorescence microscope Olympus BX40
• Cultivation of microbes - CO2 incubator, microbiological incubators, autoclaves, biohazard safety boxes, anaerostat
• Mapping of the growth of microbes - culture growth monitoring instrument - Bioscreen C, spectrophotometer

Methods

• Microdilution broth method, disc diffusion test, E-test, aerobic/microaerobic/anaerobic cultivation of microbes, microbial population counting, mapping of growth curves.
• In vitro biofilm formation, biofilm quantification – spectrophotometrically; detection, visualization – fluorescent, confocal microscopy.
• Evaluation of metabolic activity of microbes – spectrophotometrically, microbial viability evaluation – plate count method, bright field/fluorescent microscopy.
• Microbial protein isolation, concentration and purification: Stirred cell, Amicon, Centricon (Millipore) tubes, sucrose gradient; preparation of protein samples for MS analysis – sample desalting, protein separation and visualization: 1 D SDS-PAGE, Coomassie blue staining, sweet silver staining – 1 D gel analysis; in-gel trypsin digest, extraction/concentration of peptides.

Equipment

Cultivation of microbes - CO₂ incubator, microbiological incubators, autoclaves, biohazard safety boxes, anaerostat.

Mapping of the growth of microbes - culture growth monitoring instrument - Bioscreen C, spectrophotometer.

NEW! Synergy^TM HTX Multi-Mode Microplate reader (Biotek Instruments, Inc.) - Detection modes: UV-Vis absorbance, Fluorescence intensity, Luminescence, Alpha

And other: vortexes, OD meters, microcentrifuge, cooled centrifuge, Stirred cell for sample/protein concentration, microbiology shakers, sonification bath, ...