UGA FacilitIES OVERVIEW & INstructions For UGA Core Research Facilities: click here Please note: We do not have standing accounts with all of these units. Each service unit has forms which must be brought to the Department for a signature. Before going to any of these units, you must get authorization from Lisa Moncrief for any charges against a departmental account. Computer Center accounts are scheduled by Ryan Miller. Instructions for specific Facilities Boyd Computer Center The Computer Center is located on the 1st floor of the Boyd Graduate Studies Building. EITS staff provide support for the core and hosted computing systems available to UGA students, faculty, and staff on a 24/7/365 basis. Non-grant use by Plant Biology faculty and students should be cleared with Ryan Miller (IT) and the Department head. Electron Microscopy Lab The Georgia Electron Microscopy Lab, located in room 152, Barrow Hall, is a University-wide facility designed to provide a variety of equipment. Equipment available includes two transmission electron microscopes (one with full tilting goniometer, STEM and x-ray detection capabilities), one scanning electron microscope (equipped to examine conventional or frozen specimens using either secondary or backscatter electrons and x-ray micro analysis), a laser scanning confocal microscope, a freeze-fracture device, microtomes, and other support equipment. Interested users should contact Eric Formo, Managing Director (eformo@uga.edu). Georgia Genomics and Bioinformatics Core (GGBC) The Georgia Genomics and Bioinformatics Core (GGBC) is the University of Georgia (UGA) core laboratory for nucleic acid sequencing and bioinformatics. It offers research support, education, and training to university and industry researchers. Services encompass the range of genomic techniques and applications, sequencing technologies, and bioinformatics analyses. GGBC operates multiple platforms for short-, long-, and single-molecule sequencing reads (i.e., Illumina MiSeq and NextSeq, PacBio Sequel, and Oxford Nanopore MinIon). Letters of support (LOS) to offer our capabilities and expertise for grant applications submitted to funding agencies are also provided on request. Marine Facilities Marine facilities are available to department personnel. The University system has two marine stations: Skidaway Institute of Oceanography and the University of Georgia Marine Institute on Sapelo Island. Skidaway is the larger facility with marine research in diverse areas including biology, chemistry and geology. Limited marine research in the Plant Biology Department is centered on Sapelo Island. The Marine Institute has six staff members, a number of graduate students working on their degrees, technicians and visiting scientists from a variety of institutions. Most of the research concerns the ecology of the adjacent salt marshes. Since Sapelo Island can only be reached by a daily ferry service, access to the island is restricted to people with business there. To visit the island you must obtain permission for the visit as well as permission to ride the boat several days in advance. As space, time and Institute regulations allow, we also try to provide for 23 non-scientific visits by family and friends of people working there as well as students who just want to see the place. People who do not have research projects at Sapelo must arrange their visit to coincide with someone who is known at the Institute and can act as host for your visit. Please check with Gracie Towsend (912-485-2221) at least two weeks before a trip to Sapelo Island. Personnel using the Marine Institute facilities are expected to acquaint themselves with and obey the rules and regulations of the Institute and the Department of Natural Resources. We need them more than they need us and Plant Biology personnel are expected to follow their rules.
