Central Analytical Facility
The Central Analytical Facility was created through a Canadian Foundation for Innovation initiative which brought together various stakeholders including Nipissing University, the Governments of Canada and Ontario, Varian Canada, Perkin Elmer and Fisher Scientific. This initiative enabled the funding of new laboratory space and the purchase of state-of-the-art analytical equipment. The facility allows Nipissing University researchers and students to expand the focus of their research into new areas that were previously inaccessible.
In addition to the research and teaching priorities associated with the Central Analytical Facility, the facility also performs external research in exchange for financial support for the facility. This means that the facility and its personnel can be utilised by companies, government agencies and other universities to perform a range of analyses from DNA profiling to environmental chemical analysis. Click here to access the CAF User Guidelines.
The equipment housed in the Central Analytical Facility is used for research and teaching. The research equipment consists of: a dual pump Varian Prepstar HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) system; a Varian 3900 GC (gas chromatograph) coupled to a Varian Saturn 3900T (mass spectrometer); a Varian FS240 AAS (Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer) coupled to a Varian GTA120 (Graphite Tube Atomizer); a Perkin Elmer Scan Array Gx microarray reader; a Techne TC-512 DNA PCR thermo-cycler; and a Thermo IEC Multi-RF refrigerated centrifuge. The teaching equipment consists of a new, state of the art, dual pump Varian HPLC system; a Perkin Elmer AA spectrophotometer and a Varian Star 3400CX gas chromatograph and a Perkin Elmer microplate reader.
