Equipment
The facilities comprising the School include a large undergraduate teaching laboratory including model pharmacy dispensary, 2 smaller teaching laboratories designed for smaller student groups, a purpose built unit operations facility for pharmaceutical technology and an aseptic suite for sterile product production, TPN and cytotoxic drug preparation (5 x laminar air flow units and 2 x isolators). In addition there are specific research laboratories for formulation science, isotope handling with liquid scintillation counting facility, biopharmaceutics, cell culture (mammalian tissue culture laboratory plus ancillary equipment), thermal analysis and micromeritic and a number of laboratories for specialised purposes e.g. platelet studies, mast cell studies, drug synthesis, chromatography, spectroscopy etc.
In relation to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, the School has a wide range of equipment used for this purpose including laboratory and pilot scale pharmaceutical technology equipment for, i.e. comminution, mixing, tablet manufacture and evaluation, ointment mills, homogenisers, sterilization and production equipment for sterile products, viscometers, dissolution equipment, pharmacological recording equipment for measurement of blood pressure, ECG, EEG and smooth muscle contraction, electrophysiological patch clamp recording equipment, spectroscopic and chromatographic instrumentation: IR, UV, fluorescence, GC, MPLC, HPLC, autotitration units for potentiometric and KFT analysis, polarimetry, conductivity and other physical chemistry instruments.
The School have been successful in securing funding for an LC/LTQ Orbitrap mass spectrometer (approximately €500,000) through a joint bid with the School of Medicine. The sample request form can be found here:
http://www.pharmacy.tcd.ie/spectrometry/
Processing and synthesis equipment primarily used for research includes: spray dryers (Büchi B-190, B-191, B-290 with inert loops, Niro SD-Micro), freeze dryers (VirTis BT6K), supercritical fluid extractor (Supelco), mills (Retch ZM 100, PM100, MM2, Copley KM5, Brook-Crompton), microniser (Jet-O-Mizer 00), blenders (Turbula, V-blenders, cube mixer), rotary evaporators (Büchi Rotavapors), Greenhouse Parallel Synthesizer Reactor (Heidolph Brinkmann), microwave reactors, MDI filler (Pamasol).
Analytical and testing equipment includes inverse gas chromatograph (SMS iGC 2000), dynamic vapour sorption instrument (SMS DVS Advantage), differential scanning calorimeter plus thermogravimetric analysis attachment (Mettler-Toledo 821e and TG-50), differential scanning calorimeter (PerkinElmer Diamond with HyperScan and StepScan); X-ray diffractometer (Rigaku MiniflexPlus II), Fourier-transform infrared spectrometers (Nicolet Magna 560 ESP, PerkinElmer Spectrum 100), Malvern Mastersizer 2000 laser diffraction particle size analyser (with Scirocco 2000 and Hydro 2000 µP accessories), air jet sieve (Alpine A200LS), Malvern Zetasizer Nano ZS with dedicated MPT2 titration system, gas adsorption surface area analyser (Micromeritics Gemini II and VI), helium pycnometer (Micromeritics Accupyc 1330), non-contacting laser profilometer (UBM), rheometer (Carri-med CSL2 500), powder rheometer (FT4), tensiometer (Lauda TD1), gradient PCR cycler (Peqlab Primus 96), RT-PCR (Eppendorf, realplex2), electrophoresis (P/ace 5000), automatic titration systems (Metrohm), fluorescence polarization system (PanVera Corp.), aggregometers (Lumi, Bio/data), FACSarray bioanalyser (BD), quartz crystal microbalance (Q-Sense, e4), Coulter counter (Beckman), free radical analyser (WPI, Apollo 4000), Chemidoc XRS system (Bio-Rad), liquid scintillation analyser, BioPhotometer (Eppendorf), Eppendorf EP motion workstation, UV/Vis spectrophotometers (Shimadzu 1700 and mini 1240, Spectronic Genesys 5, Thermo Electron Corporation UV with Peltier temperature control, Varian Cary 300), multiscan plate reader (Labsystems), various chromatography set-ups including TLC, Chromatotron, GPC, ion, MPLC, HPLC, HPFC, GC (Waters, Shimadzu, PerkinElmer, Biotage and others), plate readers, gas chromatograph coupled with mass spectrometer, aerosol testing equipment (twin impingers, Andersen cascade impactors, next generation impactor), disintegration testing systems (Erweka), in vitro dissolution testing systems (BP/Ph Eur/USP apparatus 1, 2, and 4 from Vankel, Erweka and Sotax), optical microcopes (Carl Zeiss, Leica), autoclaves, CO2 incubators, -80 deep freezer (Ilshin), microtones (Leica), laminar flow hoods (Holton Laminar).
Access to other facilities i.e. mass spectrometry NMR (400MHz, 600MHz), electron microscopy (SEM, TEM) and spectroscopy is available in the University.
We are partners with Attlas a site to provide information on analytical service capabilities in the HEI sector in Ireland that are accessible to industry globally to enhance their business opportunities.