The Developmental Ecology and Human Biology Lab is a biosafety level 2 facility located in rooms 330 & 311 of Mary Harmon Bryant Hall (also called the Scientific Collections Building) on the University of Alabama campus.
The lab is fully equipped for secure long-term storage of biological samples and for most types of absorbance-based assay protocols (e.g., ELISAs). Our -30ºC freezers and a 4ºC refrigerators are remote monitored and alarmed to ensure temperature stability for stored samples and reagents. We rely on a BioTek Powerwave HT microplate reader (200-900 nm) for absorbance detection. With three bench workstations, two computer workstations, a biological safety cabinet, and a fume hood, the lab has adequate work space to efficiently and safely support multiple ongoing projects.
The lab also maintains and stores the equipment required to support our broader interests in monitoring daily experience and activity patterns, and identifying their correlations with long-term health risk. To that end, we have on hand several Actigraph GT1M waist accelerometers that allow us to track daily patterns in physical activity levels, and personal digital assistants loaded with PROUST software that allow study participants to reconstruct detailed diaries of their daily experiences. The lab's Tanita BIA (bioelectrical impedance analysis) monitors, along with the Anthropology Department's collection of anthropometers and skinfold calipers, allow us to include in our studies the analysis of body composition.
The lab works through the Human Behavioral Ecology Research Group (HBERG, directed by Dr. Chris Lynn, DEHB's co-director) and our collaborators in the Center for the Prevention of Youth Behavior Problems for access to ambulatory autonomic psychophysiology equipment.
The lab also maintains expertise in several other assay technologies, including FRET, DELFIA, RIA, and HPLC. We presently work with collaborators for access to relevant equipment in these areas.
