• An instrument training fee is charged per user per instrument.
• Training may be individual or in small groups (2-4 people), as scheduling allows.
• All training sessions include:
  • Overview of the instrument and maintenance procedures
  • Tutorial on control and analysis software
  • Review of experimental design
• Training sessions do NOT include user data collection.
  • ...

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Users from all external labs are charged an additional Facilities and Administration Fee (F&A Fee) which goes to HMS to cover a portion of the facilities and administration costs for the CMI space.  We include this add-on fee in our published rates for external users, however PPMS invoicing separates this out from the base rate. 

• Academic Users are considered External if:
  • their lab's grants are managed by any...

Read more about What is the "F and A add-on" charge on my invoice?

We do NOT collect User Data during CMI training sessions.

All Training sessions include:

• Overview of the instrument and maintenance procedures
• Tutorial on control and analysis software
• Review of experimental design
• User trainings may be individual or small group, depending on scheduling.

For some technologies, we'll run a standard during training to illustrate how the instrument works and/or to practice. We won't collect any data during training on systems for which sample manipulation is...

Read more about May I collect data during training?

For a basic nanobody selection campaign, 1 ml antigen at 15 μM is needed. We require SEC-purified protein (and can purify your antigen by SEC if you cannot).

The CMI has four primary technologies to quantify molecular interactions: Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) and Biolayer Interferometry (BLI), Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC) and MicroScale Thermophoresis (MST). Each technologies has its advantages and disadvantages. 

Some factors to consider when choosing a binding method include:

• need for kinetic and/or equilibrium fits
• the relative size of the interactants
• the amount and concentration of samples
• the ease of labeling and/or immobilizing ...

Read more about I want to measure a Kd, how do I choose which technique is best?

 

For Nanobody selections, the CMI currently uses a synthetic yeast display library, developed in the Kruse lab, a based on a consensus framework derived from llama antibody genes with variable complementary determining region loops (CDRs) designed from known nanobody structures.¹

This library is available for non-profit research from...

Read more about Can I get the CMI Yeast Surface Display Nanobody Library to perform my own selections?

Basic lab supplies provided by the CMI.

• gloves
• pipette tips
• 0.2 ml tubes for MST and ITC
• HPLC vials for SEC-MALS
• Biacore vials
• Mass photometry standards
• Standard (uncleaned) mass photometry cover slides

Specialized supplies that may be available for purchase at the CMI (through PPMS)

...

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The choice of which molecule to keep constant and which to vary will depend on the experiment type, the properties of the molecules and the stoichiometry of the interaction.

For ITC, where neither protein is labeled or immobilized, either molecule can be in the cell or syringe. You will need a higher concentration and total amount of the molecule in the syringe, so solubility and availability will generally be deciding factors. For protein/small molecule interactions, it is most common to put the protein in the cell and the compound in the syringe.

For MST, one...

Read more about To measure a molecular interaction, how do you choose which molecule to be kept at a fixed concentration and which to vary in concentration?