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The School of Biological Sciences

Research Facilities & Projects

Research Facilities & Projects

Aquarium Facility

The School has outstanding aquarium facilities following a recent £1.5M refurbishment. We have both freshwater and seawater tank facilities: The freshwater facility comprises three independent streams with 10 tanks (500L each) per stream of recirculated water which has temperature control and programmable photoperiod. The saltwater facility comprises 30 tanks (500L). All tanks have associated automatic feeders with full remote sensing and alarms.

We also have separate high biosecurity freshwater pathogen challenge facilities containing 18 tanks, and a fully independent zebrafish aquarium with an isolated set of breeding tanks (Techniplast) designed for use with GM models.

Further small aquarium rooms are also available for bespoke use for tropical species or as a designated hatchery.

Find out more about the research that takes place in our facilities below. 
This project has received funding from the European Commission under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions programme - grant agreement No 101036101.

 

Environmental Analytical Suite

The school has state-of-the-art facilities for extraction/digestion and analysis of a wide range of analytes.

We have microwave digestion, traditional digestion blocks, Kjeldhal  and Soxhlet capabilities. For analysis in-house we have ICP-MS and NP-OES for routine elemental work and have capabilities for coupled LC-ICP-MS. For more complex matrices we have FAAS and HG-AAS. Ionic analysis is performed either by ion chromatography (Dionex) or FIA.

We also have MS capabilities for a range of stable isotopes further supported by state-of-the-art Picarro systems, some of which are field deployable. There is also automated C:N:S analysis. GC-FID / ECD is used for gas analysis while we have TOC analysis for carbon quantification in water and aqueous extracts. HPLC is available in house but we have access to LC-MS and higher resolution GC-MS within the university.

We are part owners and make use of an ACEMAC Nano Scale Electron Microscope and MicroCT facilities.