Research
Mallapragada has 1800 sq. ft. laboratory space in Sweeney Hall in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Iowa State University (ISU). She also has 1200 sq. ft. laboratory space in Ames Laboratory (A USDOE Laboratory) as she is part of the Materials Chemistry Program. These laboratories are equipped with three full-sized hoods, and various analytical equipment for polymer synthesis and characterization. Mallapragada’s laboratories include a tissue culture room with HEPA filtered air and hood, incubators, piped deionized water, and various analyzers. The laboratories are equipped with Barnstead water purification system for ultrapure water, four CO2 incubators, an inverted fluorescence microscope with phase contrast and attached digital camera, a microplate reader, and refrigerators.
Equipment in her laboratories include :-
Microplate Luminometer (Turner BiosystemsŪ Veritas) |
Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectrometer (Termo Electron® Nicholet 6700) |
USP Dissolution Cell (Hanson Research) with autosampler |
Thermogravimetric Analyzer (Perkin-ElmerŪ TGA-7) |
Gel Permeation Chromatography (Waters®). Two units, one with THF as solvent and the other with chloroform as the solvent. The GPC systems are equipped with autosamplers, UV and RI detectors and inline light scattering (DAWN®, Wyatt®) |
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MBraun glove box |
Mallapragada is also part of the Institute for Combinatorial Discovery that houses two state-of-the art facilities available for use by researchers in the combinatorial field - the Roy J. Carver Laboratory for Ultrahigh Resolution Biological Microscopy and the W. M. Keck Laboratory for Fabrication of Microminiaturized Analytical Instrumentation. The Carver Lab is equipped with two Digital Instruments Nanoscope IIIa scanning probe microscopes. A Prairie Technologies confocal microscope is mated to an inverted Nikon Eclipse microscope with fluorescence and interference optics, two camera systems, and software for automated physiological experimentation. Two more imaging microscopes are available, one featuring electrophysiology and photolysis hardware. The Lab has a Spectra-Physics model 2045 laser for deep UV imaging, and 600 sq ft for developing new imaging concepts. The W. M. Keck Laboratory is 11,000 sq ft. of class 10/100 clean rooms equipped for fabricating and assembling microanalytical systems. It features: chip analysis and test equipment (programmable CC and CV sources, and C-I measurements), inspection microscopes, networked Pentium and computer-aided design workstations, optical lithography (AB-M Backside IR Contact Aligner), photoresist spinners, wet chemical wafer handling, wet benches, stainless steel solvent bench, spin rinse dryers, thin film deposition units (plasma enhanced CVD and thermal/electron-beam metal evaporator), thin film etchers (reactive ion and plasma), ovens (vacuum annealing and drying ovens), and packagers (ultrasonic wire bonder (Hybond 572)). The Lab also houses chip-assembly workspace, and related support systems.
In addition, the Office of Biotechnology operates many user facilities that Mallapragada’s group uses.