School Research Facilities

Workshop | Electron Microscopy, Histology, FACS Facility | Animal Services Division | Biomolecular Resource Facility | Photographic Services | Information Technology Unit

WORKSHOP

This section provides technical support services for all School divisions. In order to cater for such diverse needs the staff have expertise in carpentry, refrigeration, instrument making, machining, plumbing, electronics and electrical fields. Workshop staff

The section is active in providing innovative design and construction of new equipment, maintenance and repair of existing plant and instruments, and refurbishment of the school building, laboratories and plant. Maintenance and other work by organisations external to the school is coordinated by section staff.

In general, the function of the Technical Services Section is to satisfy the school's needs for those specialist services not readily available locally, and to this end a conscientious effort is made to keep informed of the latest techniques in its many and varied areas of activity.

Administration:
RC Friend
(Head of Technical Services)

Senior Technical Officers:
N Best; J Bowman; D Coombes; S Budynek; J Ellison; P Emans; B Keys

Technical Officers:
R Cappuccio (on secondment to MSSO); M Lynch; P Lang; M Percival; C Symons; G Whalley

Clerk:
J McGann

Apprentices:
T Jordan; P Moloney; C Were

ELECTRON MICROSCOPY/HISTOLOGY/FACS FACILITY

Head:
CM Gillespie

Microscopy Unit

The Microscopy Unit has a Hitachi H7000 transmission electron microscope, 2 confocal microscopes and 2 fluorescent microscopes with cameras.

This year was the first full year of operation of the BioRad Radiance 2000 confocal microscope. The microscope has three lasers - Argon, Green HeNe and Red diode. Triple labeled samples can be imaged in the 3 channel system using a wide range of fluorophores such as FITC, Cy2, Fluo-3, TRITC, Cy3, Propidium Iodide, Texas Red and Cy5.

Training on all equipment in the Unit is available to users as well as sample preparation for transmission and scanning electron microscopy.

Senior Technical Officer:
RJ McCart, BA (Melb), BScHons (UWA)
Laboratory Technician
DJ Moss

Histology Laboratory

The Histology laboratory provides a full service for light microscopy and is the only Histology service on Campus. 2000 has been a busy year with the number of job requests rising by 14%. There has been an increased need for teaching students and staff to use equipment, as well as solving staining and other procedural problems. Assistance with immunostaining on paraffin sections, special specimen needs and unusual specimen analysis is also provided. There has been a dramatic rise in requests for special stains in conjunction with or instead of the routine stains. Outside users of Histology include BaMBI, RSBS, Engineering, Mathematics, CSIRO Wildlife & Ecology, CSIRO Entomology and AQIS.

Technical Officers
AS Prins, BAppSc (RMIT)

Flow Cytometry Unit

Sabine Grüninger

The Flow Cytometry Unit has a Becton Dickinson FACStarplus cell sorter with triple laser bench and 4 fluorescence parameters, as well as 2 Becton Dickinson FACScans with 3 fluorescence parameter capability. There has been a steady increase in the demand for Flow Cytometry services from within the JCSMR, the ANU and CSIRO. Eosinophil sorting and Cell Physiology studies occupy the majority of the Cellsorter time whereas the Facscans are mainly used for Phenotyping, GFP and Cell Cycle analysis of mammalian and plant cells.

The head of the unit, Geoff Osborne was on leave from October 1999 until December 2000 to work as Facility manager of the Multi User Flow Cytometry Unit at the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he gained valuable experience in the use of a High Speed Cell sorter and varied applications.

ANIMAL SERVICES DIVISION

The Animal Services Division continued to expand its numbers of mouse strains in 2000 with the total proximating 90 strains by years end. The last eight years has seen the continual importation of genetically manipulated strains (Knockout and transgenic mice) necessary for the School's ability to continue internationally competitive research and JCSMR has a unique resource in this regard. To continue to build on this base, and there are continuing pressures to do so, however, will require expansion of high security mouse breeding facilities in the near future.

JCSMR continues to concentrate more upon mice as its primary research animal. During the year the decision was made that sheep use for research purposes would cease after May 2001.

The year 2000 saw the commencement of substantial building upgrade within both the Animal Breeding Establishment and Wing F, JCSMR. Pig and rabbit facilities are being substantially upgraded within the ABE and an operating theatre is also being built there. The Wing F component involves substantial upgrading of existing rodent experimental rooms and conversion of rooms previously dedicated to sheep and pig based research to high standard rodent facilities.

Director
Dr SAF Bain, BVSc (Syd), MACVSc

Senior Technical Officers
CW Cover (Animal Care Cert)
JF McLintock ( Animal Tech Cert)

Technical Officers
JL Corby (Assoc Dip Animal Science)
KMM Dodds
GK Hughes
R De Chazal (Assoc Dip Animal Science
K Minto (Assoc Dip Animal Science)
G Cover (Animal Care Cert)
D Gooding
N Barancewicz
T Hargrave
A Samcan
C Santrac
I Forgie

Administration
PA Khan

BIOMOLECULAR RESOURCE FACILITY

Senior Techical Officers:
K McAndrew, AssDipAppSci; C McCrae, BTC

Technical Officers:
M Torronen (Secondment from RSBS, Jan 1995)

Assistant Administrator:
S Moore

PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICES

2000 presented a lot of challenges to the photography unit, with the retirement of Stuart Butterworth, the section head at the end of 1999 and the creation of the Information and Communication unit. Stuart's position was not replaced and the remaining staff will be combined with the IT staff to form the nucleus of the Information and Communication unit.

The services provided, have been a large mix of convention and digital imaging along with a larger amount of graphic design. We have serviced the needs of all our JCSMR clients as well other ANU users. We are also supplying a large amount of images to outside user such as scientific journals, ACT government, publishers, news papers and biotech companies. We have also continued to provide facilities for continuing education through a satellite link, for the medical and the pharmaceutical communities in the ACT region.

Staff

Karen Edwards (Photography certificate)

Marc Fenning AAIPP (Photography certificate )
Julie Macklin (Photography certificate)

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY UNIT

The year 2000 has seen the IT Unit change premises to a larger room (which appeared to shrink amazingly quickly once we and our paraphernalia were installed) and another year of staff changes. However, the end of the year sees us with a stable team, albeit with one position to fill in 2001.

In addition to the ongoing responsibilities of an IT Unit, the focus has been to further develop the internal structures of the group. Initiatives include the appointment of a Web Manager to watch over the School’s public face, implementation of a new backup system, a job logging database and the documentation of Unit procedures in the form of a web manual.

The year 2000 has seen the IT Unit change premises to a larger room (which appeared to shrink amazingly quickly once we and our paraphernalia were installed) and another year of staff changes. However, the end of the year sees us with a stable team, albeit with one position to fill in 2001.

In addition to the ongoing responsibilities of an IT Unit, the focus has been to further develop the internal structures of the group. Initiatives include the appointment of a Web Manager to watch over the School’s public face, implementation of a new backup system, a job logging database and the documentation of Unit procedures in the form of a web manual.

There is still much work to do and we look forward to consolidating as part of the larger Information and Communications Unit in 2001.

Thank you to the IT staff members for their support and enthusiastic input at all times.

Sue Henderson
IT Unit Manager (Acting)

Staff

Occupant	Position	Dates
Daniel Belacic	HelpDesk (Casual)	November – December 2000
Pam Blower, BA (Hons), Uni Syd	Web Manager	June 2000 – December 2000
Seow Chin	HelpDesk (Trainee)	June – December 2000
Chris Collins	Network Manager (Casual & Contract)	January 2000 – August 2000
James Forge	HelpDesk (7 hours)	January 2000 – December 2000
Sue Henderson, Teach Cert (Lond.)	IT Unit Manager (Acting) & HelpDesk	January 2000 – December 2000
Aileen McCulloch	HelpDesk	January 2000 – December 2000
Alistair Phillips	HelpDesk	January 2000
Qianwen Zhang, B Computer Sci (Beijing), MBA	HelpDesk & Network Manager (Acting & Appointed)	March 2000 – December 2000