Our Facilities

Kostka Laboratory facilities include approximately 2800 square feet of lab space designed for studies of microbial ecology and sediment biogeochemistry. The lab is located on the third floor of the Leroy Collins Research (formerly Nuclear Research - NRB) building at 255 Atomic Way on the Florida State University campus, facing Tennessee St. and across from the new Alumni Center.

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Facilities in the Kostka laboratory include:

AirClean 600 PCR Workstation
2 Eppendorf Mastercycler epGradient PCR machines, each with 96 well capacity
BioRad Gel Doc X12 gel documentation system
2 Dell laptops and 2 G5 I-Macs with nucleotide sequence analysis and statistics software including ARB, GCG Wisconsin Package, PAUP, CodonCode Aligner, LIBSHUFF, Analytic Rarefaction, and EstimateS
Labconco Purifier Class II safety cabinet, for aseptic handling of samples, microbial cultures, etc.
AMSCO 3021 autoclave
Beckman DU-64 UV/visible spectrophotometer, for measurement of primer and DNA concentrations, etc.
All equipment and reagents necessary for gel electrophoresis including multiple gel boxes, power sources, and combs
All equipment necessary to maintain and manipulate sediments/ cultures under strictly anoxic conditions including Hungate apparati, gas mixer, O2 scavenging system for inert gases, and dedicated, built-in regulators for a variety of gas mixtures

Distillation apparatus for precisely quantifying sulfate reduction rates and solid phase sulfides in sediment and soil samples under strictly gas-tight conditions.
Lachat flow-injection autoanalyzer equipped with autodiluter/ autosampler and four channels for analysis of nitrate, nitrite, ammonium, and phosphate
Flow injection systems for carbon dioxide/ammonium determination
Various refrigerators, freezers, and incubators
Two ultra-low-temperature (-80ºC) freezers for sample storage.
Cold room (+4oC) of approximately 80 sq. feet.
Dual Coy anaerobic chambers (approximately 12’ x 3’ of chamber space) with built-in incubators, gas analyzers, heated catalyst boxes, and automatic purge
2 Eppendorf Centrifuges (Model 5416), one refrigerated
IKA (Model KS 501) digital shaker tables
2 Shimadzu (Model UV-1201) UV/VIS spectrophotometers
Dionex DX 600 ion chromatography system including Peaknet Workstation (Pentium III computer) and software, autosampler, electrochemical and UV/VIS detectors
Dissolved Gas Analyzer employing a Balzer’s Quadstar 422 Quadropole Mass Spectrometer with membrane inlet capability

Also available to the PI in the Departments of Oceanography and Biology at FSU are:

Bio-rad i-Cycler Thermal Cycler with real-time capability
Wallac liquid scintillation counter
Incubation system with continuous flow-through capability for measuring gas fluxes in intact cores
Temperature-controlled environmental chambers
Flame and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometers
Shimadzu gas chromatograph with flame ionization detector

In addition, the FSU Department of Oceanography has available all of the personnel and facilities necessary to support researchers. Resources include: clerical staff, a separate fiscal office to handle grant accounts and purchasing, a machine shop, and a woodworking shop.

The FSU DNA Sequencing Facility offers sequencing and fragment analysis services using an Applied Biosystems 3100 Genetic Analyzer with Capillary Electrophoresis. DNA sequencing chemistries are performed using Big-Dye terminator chemistry on double or single stranded DNA and PCR products.

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