Babenko Lab Arsenal

This electrophysiological setup was used by many, including then BCM's Instructor C. G. Nichols to confirm no current through the Bryan Lab-cloned SUR1 in the absence of Kir6, then post-doc K. Kunjilwar to re-check functional expression of recombinant (SUR1/Kir6.2)₄ KATP in mammalian cells, and then Prof. Kakei-trained post-doctoral fellow M. Nakazaki to confirm no IKATP in SUR1^-/- mice beta-cells. The setup was partly damaged by one former HHMI Investigator-trained Research Scientist, who departed the U.S. immediately after that.

This patch-clamp setup, ideal for single-channel recording and analysis of stochastic transitions gating ion channels, includes a fluorescence module to visualize recorded membrane transport proteins, and an automated rapid solution changer to determine their ligand doze-responses. All devices are controlled via PCs communicating with the server. Dr. Babenko thanks Russian Foundation for Fundamental Investigations, RFBR, Ministry of Defence, INSERM, AHA, NIH, and anonymous sponsors for helping obtain the best possible hardware and software for his custom-built system.

after trying a standard Leica DM6000B/CTR7000-based Ca²⁺ microfluorometry system

Babenko Lab shared the fast real time qPCR system, StepOnePlus,

an ABI Prism 310 Genetic Analyzers, a Packard COBRA II Auto Gamma Counter,

a Beckman LS 6500 Multi-purpose Scintillation Counter,

a Perkin Elmer Wallac Victor² 1420 Multilabel Counter,

a HORIBA Fluorolog spectrophotometer,

a Warner Planar Lipid Bilayer Workstation,

a Bio-Rad Gene Pulser II Electroporation System,

a cell tissue culture room,

an ELGA Purelab/Barnstead NANOpure Infinity water purification combo,

a few ultra low temperature freezers and refrigerators,

a Sorvall RC M120CX/Evolution, a Beckman J2-HS/J-6M/TL-100, and an Optima XL-80K ultracentrifuges,

a Savant Speed Vac Plus SC110A/Novalyphe-NL150 vacuum pump system,

a Bio-Rad 583 Gel Dryers,

a FOTODYNE Foto/Analyst 'Investigator' with 60-2030 Coomassie Blue and 60-2031 Ethidium Bromide Filters,

an EG&G Berthold Lumam LB9507,

a New Brunswick BioFlo/CelliGen 115,

an old Pharmacia FPLC System,

and an even older unbreakable Welbilt Company Ice-O-Matic machine,

all close to a cold room for basic protein biochemistry work

and a warmer room for collecting and sorting out our raw data.

Here, not far away from the lab, PI reads, reviews, designs, models, submits, rebuts and otherwise struggles till he can

continue to do science he wants, in a place he likes, offering a view superior to that one from his private office window.

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