Paul Kline

paul.kline@mtsu.edu

Greg Van Patten

Chemistry

Discipline specific equipment

SCI/3095

N/A

N/A

The Biochemistry Teaching Lab, room SCI 3095, serves all Chemistry, Biochemistry majors (358 total) as well as many Forensic Science majors (122) and Chemistry minors (187). The courses offered in this room include CHEM 4550/1, CHEM 3530/1, CHEM 4530, FSCH 3531/1, and the room also services students in CHEM 4231, FSCH 4231, as well as CHEM 2880/3880/4880 research students. There are several pieces of equipment common to all these courses that are needed for this lab to upgrade and update the experiments in the course and replace very old equipment that can no longer be repaired. The new spectrophotometers will permit analysis in the ultraviolet region, expanding the ability to analyze nucleic acids and many proteins. The flash chromatography system will permit rapid, large-scale purification of small molecules, and the fast protein purification system (a replacement of 20-year-old equipment) will be able to quickly purify proteins from complex mixtures. The freeze dryer (also a replacement of a 10+ year old item) is used for complete isolation of a solid product in a form that is stable for storage and ready to use. Finally, the oven (replacing a 20-year-old item) is a general purpose oven for drying and heating samples and glassware. All of these systems will work together and will be used in all of the courses that use this teaching lab. The total number of students who take these courses is approximately 350 per year.