ORI Facilities
Introduction
The Orthopaedic Research Institute is well-equipped for research using the techniques of cell biology, histology, immunology, protein chemistry, and molecular biology. The ORI is situated on Level 2 of the Rsearch and Education Centre, which is one floor above the St George Hospital Medical Library. An auditorium with a 220 person capacity is located on the ground floor. The Jenny Short Seminor Room is immediately adjacent to the ORI.
The molecular biology laboratories, occupying 500 square metres, have been rated at the physical containment 2 (PC2) level. The main laboratory has 8 double-sided benches (4 metres long) and a single-sided bench (8 metres long). Some benches contain equipment such as gel electrophoresis units for both protein and DNA electrophoresis, a chromatography unit, a microwave oven and histology equipment.
The laboratory has hands-free sinks and safety showers. Laboratory gowns are provided by the hospital. Histology facilities include a Leica paraffin microtome and a Leica cryostat, a staining station, a toxic fume safety cabinet and assorted microscopes.
The Tissue Culture Laboratory
The tissue culture laboratory has both single-width and double-width biological hazards laminar flowhoods, three large CO2 incubators, an inverted phase contrast microscope, a water bath and refrigerator/freezers with a spacious liquid nitrogen storage tank and a liquid nitrogen dispensing unit.
The "hot room" is specially designed for work with isotopes. It has a specially designed work bench with protection shields as well as a dedicated microcentrifuge, gel electrophoresis units and a hybridization oven.
The Microbiology Laboratory
The microbiology laboratory also has a biological hazards laminar flowhood, water bath, orbital mixer incubator, refrigerator and incubator and its own RT-PCR machine.
The Imaging Room
The imaging room contains a Leica optical microscope, equipped for photography and brightfield, darkfield, phase contrast, fluorescence and polarizing microscopy. Other items in this room include a Spectra-Max microplate reader fitted with a computer, a printer, a UV trans-illuminator on a copy stand with a Polaroid camera, a SigmaPro digitized graphics tablet, and an ultraviolet crosslinker.
The Dark Room
The darkroom is separated from the corridor by a revolving door. It contains a Kodak X-OMAT 1000 film processor.
The wet area is equipped with a large autoclave, automatic laboratory glass dishwasher, and Milli-RO and Milli-Q Plus water purification system, a Contherm oven, and cabinets to hold clean glassware.
Instrument bays contain a variety of mixers, stirrers, 2 Beckman centrifuges, specialized refrigerators and freezers, including two large -80°C freezers. They also house a slab gel dryer, a lyophilizer, a Beckman multi-purpose scintillation counter, a hybridization water bath, fluorescence spectrophotometer, a Perkin-Elmer PCR machine and a Perkin-Elmer in-situ PCR machine.
A store room contains consumable supplies and a chemical storage bay houses chemicals and balances.
The Biomechanics Laboratory
An attached biomechanics laboratory has its own set of specialized equipment, including a biomechanical testing machine.
Rooms
There are two computer rooms: one equipped for researchers and another for orthopaedic registrars. There is also a small meeting room and a large well-equipped seminar room that seats 60 people and can be subdivided for simultaneous meetings.
For clinical research, the Director has rooms adjacent to the laboratories where shoulder patients are routinely seen. Clinical outcomes research is carried out on the patients' records, under their informed consent. All clinical data are automatically entered into an Access database using Teleform (Cardiff Software). Several rooms in the Orthopaedic Research Institute are dedicated for clinical outcomes research and biostatistical analysis.
