Research Facilities

RESEARCH FACILITIES
The three institutions participating in the Genetics Program—the University at Stony Brook, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and Brookhaven National Laboratory—each have world-class facilities for modern biological research. The following description of the facilities highlights the special resources available to students at these three institutions.

University at Stony Brook
The Genetics Program faculty at Stony Brook are drawn primarily from departments within the College of Arts and Sciences or the School of Medicine . The Life Sciences Building, which houses the Genetics Program office, is the home of the Departments of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Behavior, and Ecology and Evolution, all of which are represented in the Genetics Program. The University Health Sciences Center , located across the street from the Life Sciences Building, is the primary home for Departments in the School of Medicine , including program faculty in the Departments of Medicine, Molecular Pathology and Immunology, and Pharmacological Sciences. The Health Sciences Center , in addition to the basic science departments, houses the clinical departments of the School of Medicine and the 504-bed, tertiary-care University Hospital . The close proximity of the Medical School greatly facilitates the interaction of basic scientists with clinical researchers.

There are a number of core facilities that support and enhance the research productivity of investigators at Stony Brook. These include a Transgenic Mouse Facility; a spacious and expertly operated Laboratory Animal Research Center; a Center for Analysis and Sequencing of Macromolecules; a DNA sequencing facility; a Mass Spectrometer Facility; the University Microscopy Imaging Center with high resolution equipment for performing light, confocal microscopy, and transmission/scanning electron microscopy; numerous shared computer facilities; the Monoclonal Antibody Tissue Culture Center; an NMR facility; and a Microarray Facility. The library facilities at Stony Brook are outstanding. The Frank Melville, Jr. Memorial Library contains 1.7 million bound volumes and more than 2 million volumes in micro format. In addition, the Health Sciences Library, located in the Health Sciences Center , contains biological and medical books and journals totaling 250,510 volumes, including 4,374 serials and periodicals. The University maintains electronic subscriptions that provide access to all of the leading journals in the biological sciences.
An important new facility at Stony Brook is the Centers for Molecular Medicine, a research building constructed in 1999 adjacent to the Life Sciences Building . The CMM is a new approach to research space. The floors are arranged by program rather than by department. This arrangement allows maximum interaction among faculty, postdoctorals, and students with common research interests, irrespective of their departmental affiliation. The four interdepartmental thematic research programs are the Center for Developmental Genetics, the Center for Infectious Diseases, the Center for Cancer Genetics and Cancer Biology, and the Center for Structural Biology. The Genetics Program has significant faculty representation in each of these programs. The Centers for Molecular Medicine provide both an intellectual and physical catalyst for facilitating interactions among the University's scientists with common interests in these areas of modern biology.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a world-renowned research institute that provides numerous unique opportunities for trainees. Although the faculty at Cold Spring Harbor are not organized into departments, there is internationally recognized strength in the areas of Cancer Biology, Neurobiology, Plant Genetics, Structural Biology, and Bioinformatics. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory includes 28 major buildings, 11 of which are wholly devoted to the conduct and support of scientific research. A major new addition, the Beckman Neuroscience Center and Keck Structural Biology Center (37,500 square feet), opened in the spring of 1991. This building houses investigators who focus on the neurobiology and genetics of learning and memory using both invertebrate and vertebrate models. This building also houses an X-ray crystallography center.

Numerous other facilities are available to students at Cold Spring Harbor , including a monoclonal antibody facility, a computer facility, flow cytometry service, a protein chemistry service, an electron microscopy facility, and a two-dimensional gel facility. An additional resource is Uplands Farm and its associated greenhouse, which are available for studies on Zea mays and other plants. Plant rooms are available in the Delbruck lab for the study of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Brookhaven National Laboratory
The world-class facilities that are available at Brookhaven National Laboratory, including access to the National Synchrotron Light Source, provide additional unique resources for trainees in the Genetics Program. Research faculty at Brookhaven have widely recognized programs in the molecular biology of microbial, plant, and animal systems, and have a leading role in the emerging field of Proteomics. The Department of Biology contains a Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM) facility and also operates experimental stations and beam lines at the High Flux Beam Reactor and the UV and X-ray rings of the National Synchrotron Light Source. An important aspect of inter-institutional cooperation is a dedicated beamline (X26C) on the light source that is shared by the University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. This dedicated line greatly facilitates structural biology at all three institutions that participate in the Genetics Program.

The Graduate School | Degree Programs | Stony Brook University Home Page