The molecular biology laboratories of the Orthopaedic Research Institute have been rated at the physical containment 2 (PC2) level. They occupy 500 sq meters on the second floor of a new Research and Education Centre.
The main laboratory has 8 4-double-sided benches (4 meters long) and a single-sided bench (8 meters long). Each bench is equipped with vortex mixers, calibrated pipettes, sterile pipette tips, etc. Some benches contain additional 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 has both single-width and double-width biological hazards laminar flow hoods, 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-deisnged work bench with protection shields. It also has a dedicated microcentrifuge, gel electrophoresis units, and a hybridization oven.
The microbiology laboratory also has a biological hazards laminar flow hood, water bath, orbital mixer incubator, refrigerator, and incubator and its own RT-PCR machine.
The imaging room contains a Leica optical microscope, equipped for photography and brightfield, darkfield, phase contrast, fluorescence, and polarizing microscopy. It also has a camera-linked image analysis system plus computer. 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 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 -80oC 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.
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.
A store room contains consumable supplies and a chemical storage bay houses chemicals and balances.
An attached biomechanics laboratory has its own set of specialized equipment, including a biomechanical testing machine.
In summary, the ORI is well-equipped for research using the techniques of cell biology, histology, immunology, protein chemistry, and molecular biology.
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.
Finally, a medical library occupies the entire floor on level 1 of the Research and Education Centre and an auditorium which seats 220 people is located on the ground floor.
