Molecular Instrumentation Center (MIC)

The UCLA Molecular Instrumentation Center (MIC) is a campus-wide, state-of-the-art core facility that enables the use of modern instrumentation in molecular characterizations. The purpose of the MIC is to meet the needs of the UCLA scientific community by providing all aspects of technical support in the application of modern instrumentation to solve problems in cutting-edge scientific research. The UCLA Molecular Instrumentation Center (MIC), managed through the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, encompasses five major areas: Magnetic Resonance, Mass Spectrometry, X-ray Diffraction, Materials Characterization, and Proteomics and Biochemistry Instrumentation.

Instrumentation available in the Magnetic resonance facility includes six high field NMR spectrometers and one EPR spectrometer. The Mass Spectrometry Laboratory provides a wide range of sample characterization techniques for UCLA researchers that include: electron ionization (EI), chemical ionization (CI), matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI), electrospray ionization (ESI), and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI). Current equipment in the X-ray diffraction laboratory includes two single crystal X-ray diffractometers and three powder X-ray diffractometers. The Materials Characterization and Proteomics and Biochemistry instrumentation laboratories each have a large number of instruments available for use. For example, the Scanning Electron and Atomic Force microscopes (SEM and AFM) are two heavily used pieces of equipment in the Materials lab, and a recently purchased Biacore T100 Molecular Interaction has recently been installed, and is now available for use in the Biochemistry and Proteomics facility. More information about all of the equipment available in these laboratories can be found at the MIC website: http://mic.ucla.edu/. Also included in the Proteomics and Biochemistry Instrumentation division is Elemental Analysis and Speciation.

The services currently available in this section are HPLC purification, sample digestion, and elemental analysis via Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) mass spectrometry and Optical Emission spectrometry.

The highly qualified MIC staff, available in all five areas of the MIC, will provide the technical support needed to ensure that the needs of all UCLA researchers are satisfied to the highest possible standards, which in turn will uphold UCLA's tradition of excellence in world-class scientific research.