FACILITIES OVERVIEW    
         
  MOUNTAIN LAKE BIOLOGICAL STATION
 
Mountain Lake Biological Station (MLBS) is the Department’s research and teaching facility approximately 3 hrs south of grounds in the mountains of southwestern Virginia. It is recognized as one of the premier biological field stations in eastern North America and provides the department with both direct support of teaching and research missions as well as the indirect benefits of high national and international profile. The station is a sizeable operation, consisting of 29 buildings and approximately 50000 sqft under roof that sit on roughly 600 acres. Adjacent to the station are thousands of acres of National Forest Wilderness and the Mountain Lake Hotel Wilderness conservancy (~2500 acres) available for research projects. MLBS is the home of primary
 
research projects of the majority of the Ecology and Evolution group, and attracts a range of top flight investigators from all over North America. The result is unit that functions as an “adjunct” department of some of the finest ecology, evolution, and behavioral scientists in the country. MLBS is the site of one of the longest running (over 15 yrs) and most successful NSF REU programs in the country, accepting less than 10% of applicants each year. In the past, this program has served as a conduit for some of the best graduate students entering E&E programs, including our own, for PhDs. In addition, 4-6 summer courses in field, conceptual, and organismal biology are offered each year by faculty from UVA and other institutions. Together, the community of 35-75 residents live the ideal of the Jeffersonian academical village, with all members living, working and thinking side by side on a daily basis.
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CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL TIMING
 

Work being done today at the Center for Biological Timing has fundamental implications for almost every branch of biology. All organisms contain biological oscillators which govern a myriad of life processes including metabolic, cellular and reproductive activities. Some of these oscillations remain constant in frequency thus serving as "biological clocks," while others use changes in frequency to achieve selective control over downstream processes. The Center for Biological Timing provides the oppurtunity to focus the talents and insights of outstanding researchers from around the country on significant scientific problems. The Center has brought together geneticists, molecular biologists, endocrinologists and statisticians from Brandeis University, Rockefeller University, Northwestern University and the University of Virginia.

 
 
 
 
 
 
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W.M. KECK CENTER FOR CELLULAR IMAGING
 
The W. M. Keck Center for Cellular Imaging (KCCI) provides the Department of Biology and surrounding scientific communities with excellence in optical imaging of a wide range of biological, chemical and medical research objectives. The KCCI faculty and staff, enhanced by non-KCCI scientists have developed a high level of expertise in biology, physics, optics and electronic engineering and provided the Center with unique abilities in molecular imaging, generating funds from National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and The
 

W.M. Keck Foundation. The KCCI is located in Gilmer Hall, and currently offers an Olympus wide-field fluorescence microscopy; a Nikon PCM2000 confocal system; a Biorad Radiance 2100 confocal/multiphoton system; a Becker & Hickl lifetime imaging board integrated with the Biorad system; an Olympus total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) system; a camera-based FLIM system and a Zeiss 510 confocal/spectral/NLO microscopy system. The center is led by its director, Dr. Ammasi Periasamy, an expert in imaging, microscopy, and biomedical engineering who is developing the technology and advising faculty on its use. The KCCI outreach program includes international conferences and meetings, books, hands-on training workshops, hands on training course on Microscopy and invited lectures. He leads an annual FRET workshop every March that is attended by participants from all over the world.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
         

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