Institute building The Institute is located about 200 ft above sea level on a bastion of the original 16th century walls which surrounded the city. There are three floors with a total surface area of about 30,000 sq. ft. Many of the offices and research laboratories have been constructed or renovated in the past few years and are all air-conditioned. The ground floor contains about 2,000 sq. ft. of new laboratories which house the neurochemistry core and an area of comparable size recently renovated. It already contains the machine and carpentry shops, store rooms for general supplies and diving apparatus and office space for graduate students. The first floor houses the library-classroom, a common room, the main office, a number of research laboratories, the histology core, two dark rooms and five staff offices. The remaining laboratories and offices are on the second floor along with three living-bedroom suites and a central kitchen for use of visiting scientists.

Animal Facilities

A contemporary animal facility has been built on the ground floor. This self-contained structure is under positive pressure and climate controlled. It can be used for up to six species. It has the required small office and food storage area. In the same area below the north wing are the holding tanks sea water. Sea water reaches the laboratory from a pumping station near El Morro fortress. Two large tanks with a capacity of 2,500 and 4,500 gallons are used for large animals and a number of 10-30 gallons tanks are used for smaller organisms. There are also fresh water tanks for crayfish and frog in a temperature controlled room.

Collecting Facilities

The Institute has two Boston Whalers, 13 ft and 16 ft. The larger is kept at Fajardo, the area where most of the collecting is carried out. The smaller is kept on a trailer at the Institute. The Institute has a 4-wheel drive vehicle for towing the boats and collecting in the rain forest. A small van is available for trips to the campus for library, teaching and administrative travel.

Shared Facilities

There three fully-equipped darkrooms, three tissue culture rooms, and carpentry shop. There is a Millipore water purification system which provides high quality water for all laboratories.The small library at the Institute meets many needs (Nature, Science, J. Neuroscience, Neuron, Cell, J. Gen. Physiol.) and all offices are connected to the Internet. The main library at the campus has about 1,000 periodicals, over 100,000 volumes and computer search facilities.

Neurochemistry Core Facility

(contact Dr. Susan Corey, Core Director)

Developed with the aid of RIMI (NSF) grant, this facility is divided into six work areas for test-tube assays, centrifugation and spectroscopy, work requiring a laminar-flow hood, solution preparation, water purification and glassware washing, an office/library area, and a tissue culture room. Major equipment includes Beckman centrifuges (a LM-80 ultracentrifuge, a JA-20 high speed centrifuge, a GMR refrigerated table centrifuge and a microfuge), electrophoresis equipment (ISCO and Bio-Rad power supplies, electrophoresis chambers for large and mini gels, chambers for electrophoretic blotting and electroelution, gel dryer), shaking water bath, stationary water bath, Beckman LS-8000 scintillation counter, Bio-Rad video densitometer, Forma laminar flow hood with a Nikon dissecting microscope, analytical and top-loading balance and pH meter, Milli-Q water purification system with carbon, ion exchange and organic-extraction filters. The tissue culture facility contains a water-jacketed CO2 incubator, water bath, microscope and sink. Freezers include two liquid nitrogen tanks, -70o and a -20o chest freezers and two refrigerators (one is explosion proof). There is a 4oC chromatography cabinet with a fraction collector and UV monitor.

Histology Core

(contact Dr. Rosa Blanco, Core Director)

The histology core consists of a "prep-lab" with wet and dry areas and a chemical hood, 3 small rooms for light microscopy and microtomy, 2 rooms for electron microscopy, one room for confocal microscopy and a photographic dark room. The major equipment includes Tissue-Tek Cryostat, Zeiss microprocessor controlled cryostat, Vibratome, 2 Porter-Blum MT2 ultramicrotomes, LKB ultramicrotome, Leitz ultramicrotome, LKB glass knife marker, Nikon light and fluorescence microscope equipped for photography, dissecting microscope, 1 equipped for video and still photography, 1 Philips 400 electron microscope, 1 Philips 200 electron microscope and a Noran confocal laser scanning microscope.

Caribbean Neuroscience Foundation

(contact Brenda Caban, Administrator, tel: (787)721-4149 Ext.256)

A private, non-profit organization incorporated in 1987 for the purpose of supporting the research and teaching activities of the Institute of Neurobiology. These activities include support for graduate students, faculty and visiting faculty, the Institute library, symposia, and related activities. In general, its aim is the increment of the number of scientists working at the laboratories and the quality of their working environment thereby enhancing the research environment. CNF has managed a number of grants for the Institute and engaged in fund-raising activities. The Director and Associate Director of the Institute serve as Executive Director and Associate Director of the Foundation and the board of trustees includes many prominent Puerto Ricans.