Research Facilities
Research Infrastructure Facilities at Fralin Life Sciences helps you solve your most pressing research challenges by providing specialized instrumentation and analytical services for basic, clinical, and translational research.
The research facilities supporting the life sciences will provide core resources across departments and disciplines. Staffed by expert technicians and guided by user needs, these facilities will drive efficiencies and promote collaborations across the research enterprise. This model will allow for scale and quality of investment not currently available to individual researchers, departments, or colleges; efficiencies of scale for service and infrastructure; and strategic support for university priorities.
The Facility for Advanced Imaging and microscopy (FAIM) is a newly established core facility in Steger Hall dedicated to light microscopy needs, including confocal and super resolution.
Flow cytometry is an essential and versatile analytical tool with numerous applications in basic research and clinical medicine. It can rapidly measure multiple characteristics of thousands of individual cells, thus quantifying different types of cells in complex, heterogeneous populations. The additional capability of cell sorting enables investigators to purify or enrich a particular cell type from a mixed population, allowing their further study.
The Flow Cytometry Laboratory is located in Steger Hall.
A state-of-the-art Zeiss LSM 880 confocal laser scanning microscope is available to Virginia Tech researchers through the Fralin Imaging Center. The instrument is operated on a fee-for-use basis as a university service center.
The Genomics Sequencing Center offers the necessary combination of highly-skilled molecular biologists and the latest in Next-Generation Sequencing technologies to help research clients realize successful end goals.
The Mass Spectrometry Research Incubator (VT-MSI) is an open facility that supports Virginia Tech's research infrastructure as a mass spectrometry analysis and education center. The facility provides the tools and skills needed for answering key questions in chemical and life sciences research.