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Central Research Laboratories

Central Research Laboratories

Central Research Laboratories

Gateway to Cutting-edge Innovations

Since its establishment in 1982, the HKU Faculty of Dentistry has wholeheartedly pursued excellence in dental research. The HKU Faculty of Dentistry operates a Central Research Laboratories (CRL) which serves as a centralized facility for multidirectional research activities. It is located on the 5/F and 7/F of the Prince Philip Dental Hospital.

The CRL has a dedicated team of highly-trained technical staff who maintain and operate the CRL facilities/equipment. Our CRL staff aim to provide technical support to staff and students with their research activities.

If you have any enquiries regarding the use of the CRL facilities, please directly contact the CRL staff working in the 5/F or 7/F laboratories, or send an email to dentcrl@hku.hk .

The Human Bone Collection

This "Collection" comprises of human skulls and skeletons, and is dedicated for teaching and research purposes. Please find further information, and also guidelines for the application of its usage in the link provided below.

Download Guidelines

Discover Our Equipment

A Guide of Our Laboratory Tools & Their Specifications

To enable Faculty staff and (postgraduate) students who are planning research projects or are applying for grants to become more familiar with the laboratory equipment available for use in the Central Research Laboratories (CRL), a brief description of the functions/specifications of each major piece of research equipment is listed below - in 5 different categories, which may be viewed using below menu.

Equipment
Dental Materials Science
Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Elements such as Na, Ca, Ni, Ag, lead, Mg, Cl etc.
  • Simultaneous spectrum capture in the 130-770 nm wavelength range
  • Resolution of 8.5 pm in the 130-340 nm range and 15 pm for higher wavelengths
  • Sample introduction system with automatic positioning

Location

Dental Materials Science, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Dynamic and static testing on a variety of dental materials and components
  • ±3000 N dynamic load capacity
  • High dynamic performance, capable of 100 Hz operation

Location

Dental Materials Science, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Crystallization and sintering for dental ceramic restoration

Location

Dental Materials Science, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Dental materials testing against temperature changes

Location

Dental Materials Science, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Measurement of microhardness, elastic modulus, coating adhesion and scratch resistance

Location

Dental Materials Science, 5/F, PPDH

Equipment
Molecular Biology
Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • 96-well (0.1 and 0.2 mL) and 384-well formats
  • Quantitative PCR

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • VeriFlex block provides six independent temperature control over PCR optimization

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Capable to remove a maximum of over 2 liters of water in a day
  • Simultaneously dry various samples with the built-in 10-port drying chamber

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Imaging system for nucleic acid detection, 2-D gel electrophoresis, western blotting, dot blotting, film-based chemiluminescent blots, oversized protein gel analysis, etc

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Measure 0.5 – 2 μl samples with high accuracy and reproducibility
  • Versatile system configurations with both the sample retention technology and a traditional cuvette for sample measurements

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Purify protein from microgram to gram
  • Automated biocompatible chromatography system for fast and effective method scouting, purity evaluation
  • Allows visualization of proteins by triple wavelengths of UV-Vis detection

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Suitable for analytical and semi-preparative operation
  • Flow rates can up to 10ml/min
  • Maximum operating pressure 6000psi
  • Equip with in-line degasser
  • FlexInject manual dual injector module
  • Equip with dual wavelength UV-Vis detector
  • Attach with fraction collector

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Benchtop fluorometer designed for quantification of DNA, RNA, microRNA, and protein
  • Directly measure fluorescence up to eight samples simultaneously

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Capture images and analyze data from western blots and gels
  • The system supports the main imaging applications of fluorescent, chemiluminescent, and colorimetric western blots, in addition to fluorescent stained nucleic acid gels, fluorescent stained protein gels, colorimetric stained protein gels, and colorimetric membrane stains

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Customizable solvent library
  • Automatically find boiling points with Dynamic AUTOaccurate (DAA) program

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Equipment
Oral Microbiology & Tissue Culture
Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • A monochromatic UV/visible multi-mode reader
  • Applications for cell viability and cytotoxicity assays, cell migration assays, cell adhesion assays and microbial growth assays
  • With Atmospheric Control Unit (ACU) for O2 and CO2 gas regulation inside reader chamber

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Optical measurement for bacterial and yeast culture

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • A complete anaerobic system providing all the components needed to safely incubate fastidious organisms
  • Strict anaerobiosis is maintained with nitrogen, acting together with a catalyst/desiccant system that bonds and removes trace oxygen

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • A hypoxic system providing all the components needed to culture mammalian cell
  • The CO2 level is maintained at 5%

Location

Tissue Culture Laboratory, 7/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Traceable and programmable volumes
  • Plating modes: exponential, constant, circle

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Deliver consistent electrical conditions for electroporation of E. coli, fungi, and other microorganisms resulting in the highest efficiencies possible

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • In vitro studies on microbiological biofilm with computerized controlled flow of nutrient/artificial saliva in temperature-controlled incubator

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Acquisition of single-cell Raman spectra with high quality
  • Label-free, automated high-throughput single-cell sorting
  • Allows metabolic phenome based profiling and sorting of cells at high speed (up to 2000 events/min)
  • Maximal preservation of cell vitality and viability
  • Intelligent data analysis

Location

Raman-Activated Single-cell Core Facility (RASCF), 7/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • The world's first instrument system for Raman-activated cell sorting and sequencing
  • Rapid profiling of metabolic phenome in a label-free and multi-dimensional manner
  • Precisely and readily acquiring target cells with their in situ activity preserved
  • Single-cell DNA/RNA extraction and amplification with low bias and high sequence coverage

Location

Raman-Activated Single-cell Core Facility (RASCF), 7/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • AI-assisted identification and automatic sorting while preserving the in situ state of cells
  • Built-in bright-field and fluorescence modules enable maximal flexibility in identifying target cells
  • Rapidly wrapping target single cells (diameter > 0.5 μm) into microdroplets
  • Fully integrated design of system with user-friendly interface

Location

Raman-Activated Single-cell Core Facility (RASCF), 7/F, PPDH

Equipment
Mineralised Tissue Laboratory
Central Research Laboratories Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • 3D imaging system which support hard tissue and dental materials analysis
  • Variable geometric acquisition for shortest scan

Location

Hard Tissue Laboratory, 7/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Automatic in-process reagent rotation
  • Enhanced consistent and rapid processing by reagent preheating
  • Continuous agitation ensures reagents freely around specimens

Location

Hard Tissue Laboratory, 7/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Sectioning instrument for samples such as paraffin or historesin embedded specimens
  • Fast and safe specimen orientation
  • Section counter

Location

Hard Tissue Laboratory, 7/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Ultramicrotome for TEM samples sectioning
  • Three transillumination pathways (top, under and behind-specimen) facilitate viewing of specimen
  • Stereo zoom microscope, magnification 10x to 60x

Location

Hard Tissue Laboratory, 7/F, PPDH

Equipment
Microscopy
Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Investigate samples in nanometer-scale
  • Standard and proprietary AFM modes: Contact Mode, TappingMode, ScanAsyst™, PhaseImaging™, Force Spectroscopy and Nanoindentaton

Location

Dental Materials Science, 7/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • 3.0nm SE resolution in high-vacuum mode
  • 4.0nm BSE resoluton in VP-SEM mode
  • Energy Dispersive X-ray microanalysis (EDS) ports with IXRF SSD detector (Sensor area: 10 mm2)

Location

Dental Materials Science, 7/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Multi-dimensional observation of cell and tissue morphology, molecular localization and large tissue scanning
  • 2D and 3D imaging, DIC/Phase contrast, tile scanning
  • Contains 4 solid state lasers (405nm, 488nm, 561nm, 640 nm)

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Imaging system with high-precision rotating stage is a pre-adjusted, click-stops in 45° increments
  • Very little heat is generated and greatly reduce focus drift resulting from light source heat

Location

Hard Tissue Laboratory, 7/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Designed for fluorescence, transmitted light, and true color imaging
  • 8 channel of fluorescence
  • Live image
  • Time-lapse experiment
  • Hypoxic condition

Location

Tissue Culture Laboratory, 7/F, PPDH

Central Research Laboratories

Function / Capability

  • Imaging system with extendible optical configuration for cell culture observation and documentation

Location

Oral Biosciences, 5/F, PPDH