Facilities and Resources

The MSRC occupies 10,500 square feet on the 3rd floor of the Institute for Human Performance. There are currently seven research faculty and 15-20 research staff, graduate students, and fellows based in the labs. In addition, clinical faculty and residents from the department are also engaged in research at the MSRC. Facilities include:

Mechanical Testing Frames:

3 multi-axial MTS servohydraulic frames, two single axis screw driven test frames, custom servo-hydraulic wrist simulator

Biomechanical Measurement Systems:

Tekscan pressure measurement system, Flock of Birds and Polhemus 6 dof motion measurement, Cyberglove hand motion system, DVRT's; Extensometers; LVDT's; Crack and strain gage signal conditioners

Musculo-skeletal Imaging:

Fluoroscan C-arm, 2 Portable x-ray units, Faxitron cabinet x-ray, Stratec XCT2000 peripheral quantitative CT scanner, Piximus bone density scanner, Dyonics and Linvatec arthroscopy systems; Lunar & Hologic DXA bone densitometer, X-ray, SCANCO microCT 40 & Skysvcan 1074 microCT scanners and Radiostereometric Facilites available on 1st floor of IHP, as well as two clinical x-ray rooms in the IHP Imaging Core.

Microscopy:

Light and epifluorescent microscopes, inverted microscope, CCD digital cameras

Cell and Molecular Biology:

Cell culture facility: Incubators, laminar flow biological safety cabinets; PCR, gel electrophoresis, preparatory centrifuges, spex mill, atomic absorption spectroscopy, muffle furnace, electrolyte analysis; plate readers, RNA expression analysis.

Histological Sectioning:

Isomet 2000 high speed sectioning saw, Exact 340 CP diamond saw and grinding units, Polycut E microtome with ultramiller, Leica cryostat, Leica rotary microtome, CNC based Custom grinding and imaging system, cryo-microtome sectioning, laser microdissection, histomorphometric analysis.

Specialized Computer Hardware and Software:

Sun Microsystems SunBlade Ultra60 workstations and Enterprise 450 server, 3D Studiomax, Patran and MARC finite element software, ImagePro Plus micro-array gene analysis software (Generspring, GeneTraffic).

CNC Machining Capability:

CNC lathe capable of modeling orthopedic alloy to produce novel devices for research
Bio-hazard adapted CNC mini-mill which can machine fresh specimens into mechanical test specimens