The demand for mouse strains continued through 2002 and the number of strains now approximates 150. This allows JCSMR scientific endeavour unique access to a wide range of genetic material. The demand shows no sign of abating and the Animal Services Division Specific Pathogen Free unit has reached its absolute capacity with breeding now expanded into two rooms in F Wing. Undoubtedly the demand for new strains will continue if JCSMR is to remain at the cutting edge of research and it is essential that an increase in mouse breeding facilities happen for this to occur.
The previous report detailed the upgrading of pig breeding and rabbit holding areas as well as the construction of a new operating theatre and upgrading of Wing F experimental animal holding facility. This year upgrading has extended to include the Xenopus toad facility with a new continuous water flow system greatly improving the quality of accommodation
Dr Simon Bain
2002 has been a busy year for the BRF. The arrival of the new peptide synthesizer in February has resulted in an increased demand for peptide synthesis, especially longer and more complicated syntheses. Access to mass spectrometry on campus for quality control of synthesised peptides has been difficult but this will improve in 2003 with the commissioning of the new Maldi-TOF mass spectrometer in RSBS. A new large capacity vacuum freeze dryer was installed in the Facility during July and is available to all JCSMR staff. We have also experienced increased demand for our GeneChip microarray service and expect this to continue as array-based projects receive funding. 2003 will see some major changes to the way we handle sample submissions and data delivery with the installation of a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for the DNA Sequencing service and a new BRF database and administration system developed by Seow Chen (JCSMR ITCU).
Dr Kaiman Peng replaced Natalia Snarskaya as the Microarray Coordinator in June and Anna Vavrina was appointed as a 1/2 time Technical Officer to assist with DNA Sequencing (also in June).
The new BRF web site was launched in July and contains extensive information about our services.
Other BRF activities:
Karen Edwards and Peter Milburn attended the Association of Biomolecular
Resource Facilities Annual Conference in Austin, Texas in March.
Seminars by BRF staff:
Sequence-specific quantitation of nucleic acids: Real-time PCR
and Allelic Discrimination - Peter Milburn.
Enabling technologies for biomedical and biological research:
How well resourced is the ANU? - Karen Edwards.
Conference attendance:
2nd Australian Microarray Meeting, July 2002 - Kaiman Peng
Affymetrix GeneChip Users meeting, December 2002 - Kaiman Peng
We also hosted seminars by Robert Henke (Millenium Science) and
Richard Harrison (Applied Biosystems) and ran a DNA sequencing workshop
in conjunction with Mark Dupal and Michael Materazzo (Amersham Biosciences).
Dr Karen Edwards
Head
Histology Unit
Histology continued to be busy in 2002 with the number of requests rising by 17% and JCSMR users accounting for 85% of the workload. Requests for assistance with and troubleshooting of immunostaining have risen dramatically this year. There have been a number of unusual requests this year - one, in particular, involved maceration of mouse skulls to enable precise cranial measurements to be taken.
Histology was involved in the ANU Summer Science School for science teachers in January and the JCSMR Open Day during Science Festival in August. A number of visiting groups toured the unit during the year, several of which had been involved with fundraising for the School. Users outside of JCSMR include BaMBi, CSIRO Pest Animal Control Unit and the University of Newcastle.
Flow Cytometry Unit
The highlight of 2002 was the much-needed move to new laboratories
to accommodate the new Becton Dickinson SE High Speed Cell Sorter
with DiVa (digital) option. The FACSDiva is an eight colour sorter
and the DiVa option allows completely digital flow cytometry. Some
of the 'state of the art' features are:
- Full inter and intra beam compensation and post acquisition compensation.
- Sorting of four populations simultaneously.
- Zero dead time allowing for faster sorts and higher yields.
These new features in conjunction with the unit's technical expertise
continue to provide researchers with the tools to undertake experiments
which require novel flow cytometric techniques.
The other flow cytometers in the Unit, a cell sorter and three benchtop
instruments, continued to be well-used, providing a service not
only to JCSMR but the wider ANU community and to Canberra Hospital
based researchers.
Microscopy Unit
The Microscopy Unit had a busy year in all areas of microscopy - confocal/multiphoton, electron and light microscopy. The confocal/multi-photon applications ranged from standard two colour labeled cells to dye absorption in paper fibre and Z-sectioning of a dragonfly lens for 3D reconstruction. There was an increasing demand for quality digital light microscope images. The current light microcope imaging setup includes a Nikon digital camera attached to Zeiss microscope with images being downloaded to Photoshop 7. Video images can also be captured using this equipment.
Other activities of the Unit included the JCSMR Open Day, tours by visiting groups to the School and training in confocal microscopy provided to the CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology staff.
CM Gillespie
Head
The ITCU has continued to provide a quality service to the School throughout 2002 despite the disruptions and changes that occurred throughout the year.
One of the major changes for the Unit was the departure of the Head of the ITCU, Dr Drake Diedrich, in August 2002. Drake left to pursue his career in the USA after being Head of the Unit for 18 months. Mr Allan Williams was appointed to replace him in December 2002. During the intervening months Sue Henderson filled the administrative role keeping the Unit ticking.
Other disruptions to the group were:
The infrastructure used by the School and serviced by the Unit has also undergone some significant changes during 2002. Most noticeably the computer networking within the School was upgraded to 100Mb with the replacement of computer hubs with switches as part of the ANU's implementation of the Integrated Communication Network (ICN) project.
Associated with the upgrade in the network was the completion of the network renumbering project started in 2001. This involved changing the Internet address of all computer equipment on the School's network to the newly assigned contiguous range of addresses. To take advantage of the new network's capabilities, the Unit purchased a number of large file servers to replace some of the existing equipment to augment the file server service that is currently offered.
There was a transition within the multimedia section away from traditional photography methods to an entirely digital format, which was achieved in part with the purchase of a state of the art digital camera and a new scanner for the Unit. This paradigm shift brought on by the digital revolution means that staff can now produce high quality digital and print presentations for the School in shorter turnaround times.
ITCU continues to be heavily involved with the School's publications (Curtin Call, CurtinRaiser and the Annual Report) and with publicity information materials, invitations, brochures and posters. The Unit also had an active role in VIP visits (Governor General, Ministers, Diplomats, Jackie Chan) and community events such as the Open Day and the Science Festival. Such involvement has meant fostering a closer working relationship with the Public Affairs team in showcasing the School as a world leader in medical research.
Continuing development of the School's website reflects this outreach, and an indicator of our success is a 60% increase in the number of hits the site has received since 2001.
The ITCU has continued to offer technical and software assistance to all users within the School via its Helpdesk operations as well as the in-house training program.
Training room machines received memory upgrades and an increased number of courses (38) were organised and taught by the Unit. Special emphasis was placed on offering courses for students preparing presentations and their thesis.
In the back rooms, 2002 also saw the upgrade of much of the software on the servers, greater utilization of the machine and equipment databases and improvements on the FACs simulator developed in 2001.
As a whole, the year has been one of consolidation and maintenance services.
A Williams
Head
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, welding and sheet metal fabrication, plumbing,
electronics and electrical fields. 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.
R Friend
Head