UMass Boston

The UMass Boston core facilities bring cutting-edge instrumentation, methodologies and expertise to our research community. These facilities not only provide high quality research services by our in-house experts but also constitute a major educational resource for our growing research enterprise. Operating as fee-for-service facilities, some are available to external researchers as well.

UMass Boston Core Facilities Innovation Voucher Program
A state voucher program funded by the Massachusetts legislature gives small and medium-sized businesses (<50 FTEs) access to the University’s leading-edge research facilities at reduced rates. All UMass Boston core facilities are available for use with the voucher program.

Voucher Eligibility

• Companies with 50 or less FTEs, headquartered in Massachusetts and registered to do businesses in Massachusetts with the Secretary
• Start-ups and companies with 10 or fewer employees receive a 75% subsidy.
• Start-ups and companies with 11-50 employees receive a 50% subsidy

UMass Core Facilities Benefits

• Highly competitive rates
• Managed by full-time experienced professionals
• Tiered access to equipment and services
• Streamlined contracts
• State-of-art facilities and equipment

For information about the UMass Boston core facilities or the Voucher Program, contact: Serena.Wang@umb.edu  

Genomics Core Facility

The Genomics Core service model fills a critical gap in genomics research by offering tailored services that move early ideas through feasibility assessment to project completion. We provide an accessible venue for exploratory, high risk / potentially high pay-off genomics-based studies, especially those that require innovative and/or technically challenging approaches. Do you have an idea that might benefit from single-cell, high-throughput, or re-sequencing approaches? Or secondary validation of gene expression levels using novel technologies like NanoString? Give us a call or shoot us an email! We're here to help you.

Equipment

• Illumina NextSeq 2000
• Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer
• Agilent 2200 Tapestation
• Qubit
• Nanodrop Lite
• Nanostring nCounter Analysis System
• Quantstudio 12K Flex Real-Time PCR System

Contact
Email: genomicscore@umb.edu
Phone: 617-287-6578
PI: Jill Macoska
Website: https://www.umb.edu/genomicscore

Vivarium Core Facility

The Animal Resources Core Facility and Vivarium is dedicated to providing the highest level of care possible to animals used in research and teaching. All aspects of animal research are reviewed by the UMass Boston Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and is overseen by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

The state-of-the-art vivarium in the Integrated Sciences Complex on the UMass Boston campus provides housing for specific pathogen free species including, rodents, frogs, reptiles, and zebra fish.  The vivarium consists of a total 7,515 square feet space with 2,744 square feet of dedicated animal housing.  The floor plan is of a single corridor design with branching corridors to the cage wash room, various procedure and housing rooms, behavioural test rooms, and suites. 

Monitoring and environment controls
With the exception of the independently controlled housing cubicles, the vivarium is controlled and monitored for climate by the Building Monitoring System (BMS). The vivarium lighting is programmable with multiple intensity settings to accommodate the workers and the animals. The individually ventilated rodent housing system (IVC) has standard cages and contact-bedding. Security is maintained through camera surveillance and a key-card entry system controlled by the BMS.

Contact
Contact Us

Facility Manager: Elizabeth Boates
Website: https://www.umb.edu/arcf

Proteomics Core Facility

The UMass Boston Proteomics Core offers a full range of proteomic services using an Orbitrap Fusion Lumos Tribrid mass spectrometer at highly competitive rates. Our services range from sample preparation, bottom-up protein identification, quantification of expression levels using both label free and TMT multiplexing strategies, PTM analysis, 2D fractionation, and top-down proteomic analysis. Our instrumentation offers unique flexibility in designing proteomic experiments to provide the best outcome for your project. The director of the core, Professor Jason Evans, has over 25 years of experience in the field of mass spectrometry and proteomics, and as a facility we have been servicing the proteomics needs of multiple principle investigators at the University of Massachusetts Boston since the Spring of 2016. We offer unmatched customer service, taking the time to consult with you to learn your needs and formulate the best plan for analyzing your samples, so that you get the most out of the resulting data. We work very hard to keep our turn-around times as short as possible. In addition, as a core facility at the University of Massachusetts Boston, we are currently in a unique position to offer our services to small businesses with less than 10 employees at a 75% discount and to small businesses with less than 50 employees a 50% discount from subsidies provided though the state of Massachusetts.

Equipment
The Proteomics Core currently uses the state-of-the-art Orbitrap Fusion Lumos Tribird mass spectrometer with the Easy-ETD upgrade coupled with either an Easy-nLC 1200 or an UltiMate 3000RS HPLC. The core uses the Thermo Xcalibur suite of programs to run the equipment and analyze the raw data files. For bottom-up studies the core uses Thermo Proteome Discoverer to identify and/or quantify the expressed proteins in the client's sample(s). For top-down studies the core uses the ProSightLite application.

Contact
Email: Proteomics.Core@umb.edu 
Phone: 617-287-6149
PI:  Jason Evans
Website: https://www.umb.edu/proteomicscore

Imaging Core is equipped with a confocal microscope by Zeiss, a shared resource open to the UMass Community and member companies at the Venture Development Center on campus.

Contact
Email: Alexey.Veraksa@umb.edu
PI:  Alexey Veraksa
Website: Veraksa Lab (umb.edu)

Environmental Analytical Core Facility

Offers state-of-the-art environmental instrumentation for chemical and material property analysis of environmental samples including natural waters, soils, sediments, and biological tissues. The facility includes two inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers (a quadrupole instrument and a high resolution, magnetic sector instrument), isotope ratio mass spectrometer, GC mass spectrometer, and several peripherals (e.g., laser ablation, HPLC) for hyphenated metal analyses of solids and aqueous speciation. A class 100 (ESO 5) clean room facility and several class 100 clean benches are part of the facility. The Core facility also includes Scanning (SEM) and Field Emission (FESEM) Scanning Electron Microscopes and technical expertise for the characterization of nano-engineered materials, microelectronics, and others.

Equipment

• Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer (IRMS)
• Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS)
• Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS)
• ICP-MS peripherals and processing equipment
• Electron Microscopy
• Microscopy
• Elemental Analyzer (EA)
• Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES)
• Cold Vapour Atomic Fluorescence Spectroscopy (CVAFS)
• Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)
• Mercury Analyzers
• Sediment Digestion Systems
• Dissolved Inorganic/Organics
• UV-Vis Spectrometers
• Fluorometer
• Digital Microbalances
• ED-XRF

Contact
Email: EACF@umb.edu
Phone: 617-287-5562
PI: Karen Johannesson
Website:  https://www.umb.edu/eaf

Biophysical Instrumentation Core Facility

The Biophysical Instrumentation Core Facility is equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation to aid researchers in characterizing molecular interactions, sample integrity, stability, structure, and more. The Core is open to both internal and external users.

• Fluorescence and fluorescence anisotropy
• Circular dichrosim (CD) and LD spectroscopy
• Absorbance spectroscopy
• Binding affinity (KD)
• Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and multi angle light scattering (MALS)
• Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC)
• Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)

The Quantum core facility offers access to quantum device characterization and fabrication facilities in Boston Massachusetts to the quantum information science and engineering industry for quantum device development and commercialization. Quantum device fabrication capabilities include a class 1000 cleanroom facility with electron beam and optical lithographic capabilities as well as metal deposition of superconducting metals with electron beam and sputter deposition processes. Packaging and characterization capabilities include atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, 4-point probe stations, and wire bonders. Low temperature measurement systems include two-cryogen free dilution refrigerators, Helium-3 cryostat and 4 K cryostats for DC and RF measurements. A suite of measurement electronics including high frequency vector network analysers, spectrum analysers, microwave synthesizers and DC sources are available for low temperature electrical characterization of quantum devices. Characterization of quantum devices at the Quantum Core can be done in a remote modality with network access available to measurement computers and electronics. Technical expertise is also available through the core facility.

Contact
Email: Matthew.Bell@umb.edu
PI:  Matthew Bell

Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) Core Facility

ZEISS Sigma500VP FESEM is an advanced field emission SEM that produces exceptional images at high and low accelerating voltages. Together with its analytical capabilities, this instrument is suitable for a wide range of applications. The instrument owns a high resolution filed emission column with a high stability Schottky field gun, the beam current ranges from 1 pA to 400 nA, and the acceleration voltage range is from 200 eV to 30 keV.

Detectors: In-lens secondary electron, Everhart-Thornley secondary electron, variable pressure secondary electron, backscattered electron. 

The instrument is equipped with Oxford energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) system for elemental and chemical analysis of a sample inside the SEM. 

Contact
Email: SEM@umb.edu
PI: Niya Sa
Website:  https://saniyabnu.wixsite.com/niyasa

AI Core Facility

The Artificial Intelligence Core provides infrastructure and algorithms for machine learning on massive data collections. Services include specialized data management and targeted software development to minimize the cost of manual data processing.

Contact:
Email: daniel.haehn@umb.edu
PI: Daniel Haehn
Website: https://mpsych.org/

Flow Cytometry Core Facility

The Flow Cytometry Core Facility enables UMass Boston investigators and academic and industry collaborators to carry out basic and translational cellular and molecular biology research.  We leverage cutting-edge technologies for research and clinical applications.  We help investigators and clinicians analyze tissue samples, identify and quantify different populations of cells based on the presence of cell-specific fluorescent signatures, and collect cellular populations of interest for further analysis.