Laboratories

Main Lab

The main laboratory which houses devices for morphological analysis and mechanical training of biological materials is 1262 sq. ft.

Major optical equipment includes:

  1. Small angle light scattering (SALS) device (custom built) for quantitative tissue morphology
  2. Microscope outfitted with digital video capturing
  3. Two light microscopes
  4. Three dissection scopes

Major equipment includes:

  1. Dual specimen cyclic fatigue tester for soft biomaterials fatigue testing, including special grips for both tensile and flexural fatigue testing
  2. Novel heart valve imaging device consisting of a physiological simulation flow loop coupled with a structured light projection device for 3D reconstruction of dynamic heart valve leaflet motion
  3. Several bioreactors for controlled stretch and flexure of soft biological materials under cell-culture conditions
  4. Two physiological simulation flow loops capable of incubating intact valves (either native or engineered) in cell culture conditions
  5. MTS Tytron™ 250 MicroForce Testing System for high speed uniaxial testing

Biomechanical Testing Lab

A lab devoted to mechanical testing of soft biological tissues (uniaxial, biaxial, flexure) is 350 sq. ft.

Mechanical testing specialty devices are:

  1. New computer-controlled, high speed, biaxial testing device capable of load and strain control and stress relaxation testing of very small tissue specimens, including in-plane shear
  2. Custom built three-point bending device for flexural testing of very small compliant biomaterials
  3. Flexural testing device using a high resolution camera to image transmural strain
  4. Sub-miniature uniaxial tissue testing device that can perform flexure stress-relaxation studies

Cell Culture Lab

The Cell Culture Lab is 209 sq. ft. equipped with standard cell and tissue culture necessities: two laminar flow hoods, four incubators, and sterilization equipment (autoclave and EtO), multiple freezers (-20 and -80) for tissue storage and a millipore water sterilization system.

Computational Lab

For modeling and device design, there is a 267 sq. ft. computational laboratory. An HP unix-based workstation for Finite Element Analysis (ABAQUS), twenty pentium PC computers (processors above 800MHz), which are loaded with extensive design, word processing, and general numerical and image analysis software as well as 3 HP workstations. Also, custom image analysis software for tissue quantification (histology).