Research lies at the heart of the Biology experience at Boston College. The
department offers a wide array of opportunities for scientific investigation.
Our department, in recently renovated Higgins Hall, is well-equipped for modern
molecular, genomics and proteomic research, biochemistry, imaging and bioinformatics.
Department genomics and proteomics infrastructure includes capacities for Beckman and LiCor DNA sequencing and DNA fragment polymorphism analysis, Affymetrix microarray spotting and scanning, Beckman robotics, and Alpha-Innotech two dimensional gel proteomic analysis.
Our cytometry/imaging facilities include a Leica confocal microscope, a Phillips transmission electron microscope, an 8 parameter/ 6 color BDFACSCanto flow cytometer, departmental and individual laboratory Zeiss and Nikon fluorescence and Nomarski compound microscopes, Molecular Dynamics phosphoimager and densitometer workstations, and x-ray diffraction capability. Our digital graphics and image processing facility includes numerous Macintosh workstations with multiprocessor CPU configurations, coupled with high-resolution scanners. A large-format poster printer and dye sublimation printers support preparation for high-quality posters and printer communications.
We continue to develop our bioinformatics platform, to which undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty have access, expanding departmental computing capabilities beyond our Macintosh, IBM, Sun and Silicon Graphics workstations. Our bioinformatics server, clavius.bc.edu, is currently comprised of a 20CPU rack-mount computational cluster, with 1.2 terabytes of fiber-attached network storage. The server is heterogeneous, comprised of dual processor Intel Pentium III/Linux and dual processor Apple/Mac OS X nodes. Research computing time, available free of charge, affords substantial research and educational opportunities for students and faculty.