Dr. Loyda Meléndez Lab

Laboratory
Dr. Melendez Laboratory is located in the 3rd floor Biomedical Bldg.1 Lab. 302A(323sq.ft.) is a BL- 2 facility necessary for HIV work. It contain for two 4ft. laminar flow hoods, two CO2 incubators, refrigerated centrifuge, a high speed centrifuge, two microscopes, a refrigerator, cytocentrifuge, liquid N2 freezer, ELISA reader, balance, one Ð80C freezer, and water bath. Lab 302B (221 sqft.), is the non-HIV lab necessary for isolation and culture of non-HIV infected cells. It has two laminar flow hoods, one centrifuge, one incubator, two microscopes, a refrigerator, a Ð800C freezer. Lab (303) is the molecular biology lab with a PCR preparation area with one thermal cycler, a water bath and microcentrifuge.

Clinical
The patients are recruited from the HIV clinics (CLETS and CEMI) in the MSC and they are followed at the RCMI Clinical Research Center (CRC). The CRC has private rooms, nurses that take their vital signs and blood samples as well as CSF. Clinical Records are kept in a designated area in the CRC.

Computer
Four computers and one inkjet printers located in the RM 301. Two computers are connected to the Proteomic and Robotic Instruments in RM 303. Another PC is located in Lab 302A connected to the ELISA reader. All computers have the Office program (Microsoft Word, Power Point, Excel), are connected to the internet through the MSC library Server.

Office
B-317 (100 sq ft.) is located in the Main MSC Bldg. And office 311 (70 sq ft.) is located next to the laboratories in the Biomedical Building I.

Other
The University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus has core facilities (funded by the NIH Research Centers for Minority Institutions-RCMI-Program and institutional sources) for cytofluorometric analysis in the third floor (A-386). Autoclaves and deionized water are also located in the third floor of Biomedical Bldg.1, next to the laboratories. The B-316 in the Main Building is the proteomics Core lab directed by the PI. It has the Ciphergen SELDI-TOF instrument with its computer and the program, a 2-DIGE System (GE), and the LTQ MS MS instrument (Thermo) with nanosourcerer, and 2 computers with Bioworks program among others. On the 2nd and 3rd floor of the Main Building there are laboratories for HPLC analysis. An RCMI Emerging Infectious Disease laboratory is available with a Nikon fluorescence microscope and luminometer.

Major Equipment
List the most important equipment items already available for this project, noting the location and pertinent capabilities of each.

• Laminar flow hood-class II AB3 Model: Biomedical Bldg. Lab 303 (for HIV and non-HIV work)
  
  
• CO2 incubators: Biomedical Bldg. Lab 303 (for HIV and non-HIV work)
  
  
• Refrigerated centrifuge: Biomedical Bldg. Lab 303 (for HIV and non-HIV work)
  
  
• -800C upright freezer: Biomedical Bldg. Lab 303
  
  
• Liquid N2 freezer: Biomedical Bldg. Lab 303
  
  
• Water bath :A-303 Biomedical Bldg. (for HIV and non-HIV work)
  
  
• FACSort and FACS Calibur Flow cytometers: Main Bldg.3rd and 6th floors
  
  
• Western Blot equipment: Biomedical Bldg. Lab 322
  
  
• MJ Thermocycler: Biomedical Bldg. Lab 303
  
  
• Sequencer, thermal cyclers, at the Molecular Biology core Facility at UPR-MSC 6th floor and Ponce School of Medicine