ABOUT

The UCLA Molecular Instrumentation Center (MIC) is a campus-wide, state-of-the-art core facility that enables the use of modern instrumentation in molecular characterizations. The MIC is housed within and managed through the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and is open for UCLA researchers, other academic institutions, and commercial enterprises.

The purpose of the MIC is to meet the needs of the UCLA scientific community by providing all aspects of technical support in the application of modern instrumentation to solve problems in cutting-edge scientific research. MIC professional staff is responsible for operating, maintaining, and upgrading the equipment and training users.  MIC encompasses four major areas:

The Magnetic Resonance Facility has six NMR spectrometers. All of these spectrometers are available for use by researchers in and outside of  UCLA researcher, after mandatory Training by the Magnetic Resonance Laboratory personnel.  

The Mass Spectrometry (MS) Laboratory  provides a wide range of sample characterization techniques:

MS ionization methods: Electron ionization (EI), chemical ionization (CI), matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI), direct analysis in real time (DART), electrospray ionization (ESI), and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI).

MS analyzers: Time of flight, quadrupole, ion trap, Orbitrap ion cyclotron resonance (FT) analyzers, and several tandem combinations of mass analyzers.

Gels: Equipment is available for 1-D and 2-D gels, transferring mini and mid-size gels, gel imaging, 1-D and 2-D gel analysis, spot cutting, in-gel digestion, and protein/peptide identification for a large variety of proteomics studies.

Consultation: Sample preparation, experiment design, gel staining, analysis of protein expression patterns, western and lectin blots, in-gel trypic digestion, data mining and operation of the various instruments.

The Materials Characterization lab offers thermal, optical, microscopic, electrical and magnetic characterization of materials and elemental analysis of surfaces via a wide range of instruments including light scattering spectrometers, several spectrophotometers; scanning probe microscopes, a SQUID magnetometer, a Scanning Electron Microscope, and an X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrometer among many other characterization tools. 

J.D. McCullough Laboratory of X-ray Crystallography has been in operation for more than 40 years. The facility provides 3-dimensional structure of small molecules in solid crystals via X-ray crystallography. The facility is also equipped for characterization of polycrystalline solid materials using powder and thin film diffraction techniques. The laboratory is a full service facility where staff deals with all aspects of service from crystal selection to publication of results. In-house training is a requirement if you wish to use the equipment yourself. The laboratory is a part of the UCLA Molecular Instrumentation Center, which is a campus wide facility open to the UCLA community.  The facility also collaborates with personnel from other universities and industry both locally and internationally.