NCTR's physical facilities are located in central Arkansas and include 30 buildings spanning one million square feet of floor space, and housing approximately $20,000,000 in capital equipment.  There are 132 general or special purpose research labs; 82 AAALAC-accredited breeding and conventional animal rooms; 23 specialized labs for pathological processing and evaluation; BioSafety Level 3 Laboratory containing 10 specialized laboratories; a Nonhuman Primate Research Center; a Phototoxicology Research Center; a MicroPet^TM imaging facility; a scientific and technical library; on-site hazardous waste disposal; SPF Barrier; and GLP/GMP-compliant diet preparation facilities.  An on-site housing unit for visiting scientists consists of eight two-person units and a commons building.

Modern scientific equipment includes molecular biology tools, laser capture microdissection microscopes, flow cytometers, mass spectrometers, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers, microarray printers, and hardware/software for data visualization and analysis systems (ArrayTrack ^TM).

Specialized Facilities:

Microarray. 

1150 square feet of laboratory space is available in the Center for Functional Genomics for microarray experiments: 300 sq foot of limited-access clean-room for printing microarrays, 150 square feet for processing microarrays following printing, 450 square feet of ozone-controlled wet bench space to conduct microarray experiments and 250 square feet of limited-access space for isolating RNA.

Major equipment contained with the Microarray facilities include:

• GeneMachines OmniGrid 100 arrayer
• Axon 4000B microarray scanner
• Agilent BioAnalyzer
• BioRad iCycler for quantitative PCR
• NanoDrop scanning spectrophotometer
• MilliQ water system
• Fast Prep Tissue Disrupter
• Uninterruptible power supply for arrayer and robot
• Amersham SlidePro automated hybridization instrument
• Beckman Biomek FX liquid handling robot
• Stratogene Stratalinker for UV crosslinking
• Thermocyclers
• UV/VIS spectrophotometer
• Freezers, -80 degree C(2); -20 degree C (2)
• API ozone monitor
• Savant Speed-Vac Concentrator

Biocontainment Laboratory (BSL-3)

The NCTR biocontainment facility includes 10 separate BSL-3 suites.  Each suite has approximately 120 square feet of floor space and is equipped with a lockable, self closing door.  All of the suites have at least one Class II Type A2 biological safety cabinet (BSC) and these BSCs are "thimble connected" to the facility exhaust system which is HEPA filtered prior to release to the environment.  None of the BSC or room exhaust air is recirculated.  Four of the suites have a second BSC to accommodate extra work load.  The overall layout of the facility provides 3 BSL-3 suites separated by ~6,000 square feet of web lab, office and storage space from the raining 7 BSL-3 suites.  The routine access to either of the two BSL-3 suite areas is via a self-closing door to a "staging area" outside the individual suites.  Three pass-through autoclaves are available in the "staging areas" for sterilizing materials or treating hazardous wastes.

Research Equipment
Animal Facilities and Services
Pathology Services
Onsite Scientific and Technical Library
Computing Services