Facilities
The Faculty of Science and Technology maintains and utilises several world-class teaching, research laboratories and project spaces that cover Biomedical, Medical, Environmental and Forensic Sciences.
Our facilities are used in collaboration with our partners from industry, government and community groups, such as the Australian Federal Police, and .
We welcome further partners to collaborate with us and to use our state-of-the-art facilities. For any enquiries regarding our facilities, please contact SciTech-enquiries@canberra.edu.au
The Faculty of Science and Technology provides our students with contemporary, digitally enhanced science laboratories that support a range of teaching disciplines in microbiology, chemistry, biochemistry, ecology and the biophysical sciences.
The Biomedical Research Facility includes high end sequencing capability (Applied Biosystems ViiA8), live and fixed cell confocal imaging (Nikon Ti Eclipse), physiological/biochemical analysis at the molecular level (Warner single channel lipid bilayer electrophysiolgy workstation), virus tissue culture, high end chiral separation (micro-HPLC) in addition to general cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, analytical chemistry capabilities. This new laboratory and office space is designed to meet current research needs of University academics but also to be future ready, with flexible internal design and capacity for extension and adaptation to new uses. The laboratories are designed to service bench experiments (PC1 and PC2) as well as handling of animal and clinical samples, enabling complete research project support from discovery to application.
The Cosmogenics Facility is a purpose-built facility equipped with a robotic Vulcan 84 automated sample preparation system that enables acid digestion of solid and liquid samples. The Cosmogenics Facility enables research into cosmogenic nuclide dating of geological samples, general analysis of environmental soil and sediment, complementing the Ecochemistry Laboratory, and fatty acid analysis of fish and macroinvertebrates.
The National Centre for Forensic Studies is a combined teaching and research facility. It consists of chemical analysis, microscopy and DNA amplification suites and an evidence room.
The Freshwater Ecology Laboratory has the capacity for the analysis of macro invertebrate and fish samples, algae and stable isotope samples, as well as a range of habitat characterisation parameters. The Laboratory contains a range of Leica microscopes, micro balances mutiprobe meters and data loggers as well as instruments for measuring water quality, algal biomass and chlorophyll concentration.
The environmental research precinct contains animal holding facilities, aquatic research mesocosms and flumes, and dedicated glasshouse space (see details below) for botanical studies.
The Glasshouse has recently been upgraded to a state- of- the- art auto grow facility with an ‘on the go’ mobile platform and comprehensive climate controls that enable researchers to cultivate their research in a measurable environment. The Glasshouse facility also contains an in-built alarm system that sends alerts if there are any deviations to set climate measures. The Glasshouse compound also contains an outdoor experimental system of freshwater tanks, that allows our researchers to examine the natural environment under controlled conditions.
The Wildlife Genetics Laboratory allows researchers to undertake high quality DNA research through the use of separate pre- and post- PCR space equipped for DNA sequencing, genotyping, cloning, and state-of-the-art cytogenetic work.
The Faculty and the Institute for Applied Ecology maintains a fleet of fully equipped four-wheel drive vehicles, boats, remote controlled electrofishing vessel and trailers to support our researchers throughout their time in the field during research collection periods. The Institute has recently rejuvenated its vehicle fleet, acquiring two brand new fit for purpose vehicles. These vehicles and trailers have the ability to go fully off road and reach remote areas.