Chemical Biology Laboratory
The Chemical Biology Laboratory focuses on Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery Research. It is located at the Jockey Club Building for Interdisciplinary Research in Sassoon Road Campus, housing laboratories for Synthetic Chemistry, Biological Mass Spectrometry and Molecular Biology. The Laboratory also serves as a hub of Strategically Oriented Research Theme (SORT) on Chemical Biology for Drug Discovery involving academic units of Chemistry, Biological Sciences, Biomedical Sciences and Clinical Medicine in the University. The Laboratory was established on the foundation of Areas of Excellence (AoE) program of Institute of Molecular Technology for Drug Discovery & Synthesis with funding support from Research Grants Council, Innovation and Technology Fund, Jockey Club Charity Trust on Chinese Medicines Research, Department of Health projects on Hong Kong Chinese Materia Medica Standards, and State Key Laboratory of Synthetic Chemistry.
X-Ray Crystallographic Platform
Excillum MetalJet Bruker D8 VENTURE X-Ray Diffractometer
X-ray generation from liquid metal or alloy anode is an unprecedented technology, resulting extremely high power X-ray radiation without the limitations suffered by conventional solid state X-ray generation techniques such as the melting point, the vapour pressure, and the thermal conductivity of the solid anode target. Currently HKU-SKL housed a high brightness radiations (> 10^11 ph/mm2/s) liquid metal alloy anode (MetalJet D2 from Excillum AB Sweden) single-crystal X-ray diffractometer (D8 VENTURE from Bruker AXS GmbH) with precise focusing module (Helios MX GA multilayer optics from INCOATEC GmbH)
X-ray generation from liquid metal or alloy anode is an unprecedented technology, resulting extremely high power X-ray radiation without the limitations suffered by conventional solid state X-ray generation techniques such as the melting point, the vapour pressure, and the thermal conductivity of the solid anode target. Currently HKU-SKL housed a high brightness radiations (> 10^11 ph/mm2/s) liquid metal alloy anode (MetalJet D2 from Excillum AB Sweden) single-crystal X-ray diffractometer (D8 VENTURE from Bruker AXS GmbH) with precise focusing module (Helios MX GA multilayer optics from INCOATEC GmbH)
Bruker X8 PROTEUM X-Ray Diffractometer
The X8 PROTEUM X-ray diffractometer is equipped with MICROSTAR copper rotating anode with a PLATINUM135 Charge-coupled Device (CCD) based on the Fairchild Imaging CCD6161 chip and a horizontal KAPPA four-circle goniometer. This delicate instrument is designed for crystals of biological macromolecules and serviced since 2009.
Bruker NANOSTAR Small Angle X-Ray Scattering
The NANOSTAR is a tool for characterization of nanostructures ranging from 1 nm to roughly 125 nm, and nanostructured surfaces by SAXS, GISAXS and Nanography. The system equipped with a copper sealed tube X-ray source, a multilayer collimator and a Hi-Star 2D area detector.
Bruker D8 ADVANCE X-Ray Diffractometer for Polycrystalline Samples
The D8 ADVANCE diffractometer equipped with a copper sealed tube X-ray source and Sol-X energy dispersive detector, with a vertical DAVINCI theta/ 2 theta goniometer.
The X8 PROTEUM X-ray diffractometer is equipped with MICROSTAR copper rotating anode with a PLATINUM135 Charge-coupled Device (CCD) based on the Fairchild Imaging CCD6161 chip and a horizontal KAPPA four-circle goniometer. This delicate instrument is designed for crystals of biological macromolecules and serviced since 2009.
Bruker NANOSTAR Small Angle X-Ray Scattering
The NANOSTAR is a tool for characterization of nanostructures ranging from 1 nm to roughly 125 nm, and nanostructured surfaces by SAXS, GISAXS and Nanography. The system equipped with a copper sealed tube X-ray source, a multilayer collimator and a Hi-Star 2D area detector.
Bruker D8 ADVANCE X-Ray Diffractometer for Polycrystalline Samples
The D8 ADVANCE diffractometer equipped with a copper sealed tube X-ray source and Sol-X energy dispersive detector, with a vertical DAVINCI theta/ 2 theta goniometer.
High-Throughput Mass Spectrometry
The Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid, the Orbitrap Q Exactive Plus and the LTQ Orbitrap Velos mass spectrometers (MS) are high-throughput, high-performance MS. All the Orbitrap MS are connected to a nano-flow UHPLC, which make them excellent for analysis of proteomics samples. Analysis of proteomics samples is indispensable for drug target identification and signaling pathway analysis and thus necessary for drug discovery research.
The ultrafleXtreme MALDI-TOF/TOF MS is extremely suitable for fast confirmation of identities of synthetic complexes, the Maxis II QTOF MS can be used for further confirmation of synthetic complexes by exact mass. Moreover, the Maxis II QTOF MS when used together with the cryospray source, can be used for analysis of reaction intermediates.
Both the Orbitrap Q Exactive Plus MS and the Maxis II QTOF MS are suitable metabolomics analysis for metabolite profiling or target metabolite identifications. The identified metabolite can be further absolutely quantified with the TSQ Altis triple quarupole MS. Metabolomics samples includes clinical samples, drug treated-animal tissue extract, Chinese herbal extract; analysis of such samples are essential for drug discovery research.
The ultrafleXtreme MALDI-TOF/TOF MS is extremely suitable for fast confirmation of identities of synthetic complexes, the Maxis II QTOF MS can be used for further confirmation of synthetic complexes by exact mass. Moreover, the Maxis II QTOF MS when used together with the cryospray source, can be used for analysis of reaction intermediates.
Both the Orbitrap Q Exactive Plus MS and the Maxis II QTOF MS are suitable metabolomics analysis for metabolite profiling or target metabolite identifications. The identified metabolite can be further absolutely quantified with the TSQ Altis triple quarupole MS. Metabolomics samples includes clinical samples, drug treated-animal tissue extract, Chinese herbal extract; analysis of such samples are essential for drug discovery research.
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