Facilities & Instrumentation
ASDRP is proud to provide students with state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, which span two laboratory buildings in the Innovation District of Warm Springs in Fremont, strategically situated in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Our laboratory spaces are better equipped than many biotech or university laboratories: we provide over $2 million worth of advanced apparatus. The equipment and lab space we provide to students cannot be found anywhere else outside of professional laboratories.
Life Science Research & Development Laboratory
46307 Warm Springs Blvd. Fremont, CA 94539
LS101 - Laboratory for Chemical Synthesis
LS102 - Biosciences and Microbiology Laboratory
LS103 - Core Instrumentation Facility
Engineering Research & Development Laboratory
46249 Warm Springs Blvd. Fremont, CA 94539
Our life science research laboratory, surrounded by some of the Bay Area's most cutting edge biotech startup labs, houses most research operations in the Biology and Chemistry departments, including a fully operational synthetic chemistry / drug discovery laboratory, a biosciences and microbiology laboratory, and a dedicated instrumentation facility. The Life Sciences building houses ASDRP's drug discovery core and all of our cancer research operations.
The ASDRP engineering laboratory building features several high-end instruments for materials science and chemical engineering, along with a fully operational fabrication lab, 300-pound robotic arm, and an indoor grow room for environmental engineering.
Additionally, ASDRP operates a research-grade server cluster consisting of eight Dell PowerEdge servers available for remote access to computational research.
All of our research facilities operate on the same safety standards as our neighboring biotechnology and pharmaceutical R&D laboratories. As a predominantly research-oriented institution, our laboratories are devoted 24/7, 365 days a year for our researchers to perform scientific research.
Due to the current pandemic, in order to protect the safety of our scientists involved in R&D operations, access to ASDRP R&D laboratory buildings is restricted to ASDRP principal scientists and researchers who are approved to work on site.
At a Glance
5,000 sq. ft. R&D lab space
73 research-grade instruments
6 industry-grade Dell servers
10 meeting/conference rooms
$2M in equipment & apparatus
Scientific & Analytical Instrumentation Capabilities
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Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
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Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR)
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High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
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Liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry (LC-MS)
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Gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
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Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES)
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X-ray fluorescence (XRF)
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UV-visible spectrophotometers
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Fluorimetry
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UV-visible spectrophotometry
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Radio frequency network analyzer
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Real time / quantitative PCR (qPCR)
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Cyclic voltammetry
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Multi-angle light scattering (MALS)
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Want to check us out? Email us at laboratory@asdrp.org to schedule a tour.
A peak at our laboratory capabilities:
Nanalysis NMReady 60Pro 60 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectrometers
ASDRP operates the only two nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers accessible to high school students for research. Our NMR spectrometers are both multinuclear-capable (1H/13C/19F/31P) and used for characterization of small molecules, and are capable of both 1D and 2D homonuclear and heteronuclear experiments, including COSY, JRES, HSQC, DEPT, APT, BIRD, NOESY, HMBC, and more.
Perkin Elmer Lambda 11 UV-visible spectrophotometer
ASDRP operates six research grade UV-vis spectrophotometers; this one is capable of high-resolution absorbance measurements, time-resolved kinetics, and stray wavelength precision down to a tenth of a nanometer.
Rudolph Instruments Optical Polarimeter
One of our two polarimeters, this instrument is capable of measuring optical rotation of plane-polarized light by chiral compounds. Our chemists and biochemists use this to study chirality in macromolecular structure and enantiopure small molecules.
Rotary Evaporators - a.k.a. "Rotavap"
Rotary evaporators are used by chemists in the gentle removal of volatile solvents under reduced pressure in the purification process of small molecules. Our chemistry laboratory has four rotary evaportators (Buchi) equipped with two-stage rotary vacuum pumps.
Thermo Labsystems Multiskan MS Plate Reader
One of three 96-well plate readers, this instrument is designed to provide rapid screening of colorimetric optical reporters, allowing our scientists to probe hundreds of conditions for biological activity in just minutes.
BioTek MicroQuant Fluorescence Plate Reader
Our MicroQuant instrument is capable of both fluorescence and absorbance experiments, enabling the rapid collection of large amounts of spectroscopic data for high-throughput screening of biomolecules.
Analogix IntelliFlash 280 Automated Chromatography
Our IntelliFlash system is used for purification of compounds out of complex reaction mixtures. It uses disposable silica gel normal phase or reverse phase chromatography columns with a built-in UV detector to track elution of UV-active compounds.
Hoefer Scientific DNA Fluorometer
Our Hoefer florometer is built to measure extremely low concentrations of DNA by using a UV lamp to track fluoresence of DNA nucleotide bases. This is useful for biochemists seeking to quantify DNA concentration.
Dynex Opsys MR Microplate Reader
Our Opsys MR microplate reader is built in with functions for biochemical quantification and for high-throughput screening of fluorescent optical reporters.
Laminar Flow Hoods & Tissue culture / cell culture space
Our biosciences lab has two laminar flow hoods, which are designed to maintain a sterile environment and keep contaminants out of cell cultures and cell lines.
Thermo Electron Spectronic Genesys 5 UV-visible spectrophotometer
Our Thermo Spectronic Genesys 5 spectrophotometer comes equipped with a wide range of detection capabilities and can be used for kinetic monitoring for reactions.
Thermo Scientific Nicolet iS5 Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectrometer
The FT-IR spectrometer is equipped with an iD5 attenuated total reflectance (ATR) sample assembly, and is used for vibrational spectroscopy to characterize molecules and materials. IR spectra capture bond vibrational modes.
BioRad SmartSpec 3000 UV-visible spectrophotometer
ASDRP operates six research-grade UV-vis spectrophotometers. Our BioRad instrument is capable of time-resolved kinetics, full differential scan analysis, and quantification of biological macromolecules such as DNA and protein
High-Throughput Computing Server & Cluster
Our two servers are industry grade Dell Poweredge machines equipped with 48 core Xeon processors, 64 GB RAM, and 10 TB memory. This is used for powerful computing capabilities, ranging from quantum mechanical calculations to time-resolved molecular dynamics simlulations.
Millipore MilliQ Ultra High Purity Water System
Sometimes, de-ionized water simply isn't good enough! Our MilliQ Water purification systems makes sure that the aqueous environments our biochemists use to study proteins and nucleic acids meet the highest level of quality control, with filters to remove even trace impurities.
Synthesis Fume Hoods
Chemistry sometimes generates fumes and volatiles that are best to keep away from our student scientists. ASDRP's laboratory for chemical synthesis includes seven heavy-duty synthesis fume hoods which duct air away from experimentalists. Three are equipped with carbon filters to remove volatiles from the air.
Princeton Applied Research Scanning Potentiostat
Our research-grade PAR potentiostat is used for cyclic voltammetry experiments, and allows chemists and physicists to probe redox states of particles in solution and to characterize metal ion oxidation states.
3-dimensional Laser Cutter
Our physicists and engineers use our industry-grade laser cutter to build custom-shaped and custom-sized components out of any material imaginable. The instrument uses a high-power laser to carve contours out of material.
Pelton & Crane High-Pressure Autoclave
To create super-sterile equipment and solutions, our biologists and biochemists use this autoclave to superheat solutions to temperatures upwards of 300 degrees and pressures up to 3,100 torr.
Bausch and Lomb Melting Point Apparatus
Melting point is often used to determine the purity of a substance, and our melting point apparatus is used by extraction chemists to determine if there are impurities in their material.
721 UV-visible-near infrared spectrophotometers
We have two twin instruments that are capable of measuring single wavelength absorbances at a range from 350 nm to 1150 nm. This can be used to monitor reaction kinetics, or to obtain specific absorbances along an absorption profile of a substance.
Thermo LC Packings Ultimate High Performace Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
High-performace liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a method for the separation and purification of small molecules from a mixture. Our HPLC is outfitted for even the most challenging separations and has a built-in UV detector.