Sacchettini Group
James C. Sacchettini, Ph.D.
Project 2 - Nanomaterials for treatment of infectious lung diseases
Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
103 Biochemisty/Biophysics Building
Texas A&M University
2128 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-2128
phone: +1 979 845-1012
fax: +1 979 845-9274
Goals for the Current PEN Contract
James C. Sacchettini is a senior investigator on Project 2.
Facilities
Dr. Sacchettini’s group is located in the Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building at the College Station campus of Texas A&M. The main laboratory facility is equipped with many PCR systems, incubators, shakers, protein purification systems, and other biochemistry equipment. These laboratories are primarily for cloning, protein expression, purification and characterization.
The lab also contains our medicinal chemistry facilities. Our wet chemistry space features several hoods, designed to accommodate 4 chemists and necessary instruments. The labs are outfitted with glassware and equipment essential for the efficient synthesis of small molecules. Of note are two Teledyne-Isco Companion systems for automated flash chromatography, a CEM Explorer 12 microwave reactor for automated reactions, Thar SFC/MS (Waters), a Shimadzu 2010 LC-MS instrument for analysis of crude reactions and final products, and a Varian 300/500 MHz NMR spectrometer. Our medicinal chemistry group is very strong. Dr. Nianen Zhou directs the lead development program of our medicinal chemistry team.
A separate space in the ILSB is dedicated to high throughput screening (HTS). Our HTS laboratory provides research teams with automated liquid-handling robots and instruments for conducting biochemical and whole cell assays. We have two CyBio Vario systems which handle all high throughput plate assays in either 96 or 384 well formats. For many cell-based assays our capabilities exceed processing 20,000 samples per day. The systems are housed in a laminar flow hood to maintain sterility of cell-based assays and to protect staff members from potential pathogens. A third CyBio 8plus1 integrated robotic system provides automated liquid handling with hit picking, serial dilution, plate sealing, and plate reading capabilities. A GE Healthcare IN Cell Analyzer 2000 allows us to incorporate high-content imaging into our assays for phenotyping at the single cell and even subcellular level. Coupled with the image analysis software, we are able to perform assays involving cell or organelle morphology, subcellular localization and/or heterogeneous cell populations. The laboratory is also equipped with BMG Labtech Polarstar Omega plate readers that provide detection capabilities in absorbance, fluorescence, and fluorescence polarization.
To support HTS efforts the lab also has a dedicated space for secure storage of compound libraries. We utilize several compound libraries in enzyme- or cell-based assays to identify potential new compounds for development into lead compounds. These include a 750 compound fragment library, a ~104,000 compound diversity library, and a ~160,000 sample natural products library. Each of these is designed to yield different types of hits useful to the drug discovery projects.
Dr. Sacchettini is also the Director of the Center for Structural Biology (CSB) which has a 1,600 square feet area where two X-ray diffraction stations equiped with two R axis IV++ and one Bruker CCD detectors are located, also 3 walk-in crystallization rooms are located close to the diffractometer for protein crystal production and storage. An additional 1,500 square feet robotics facility includes a TTP Labtech Mosquito Liquid Handling System, an Art Robbins Instruments Phoenix Liquid Handling System and TECAN Universal Plate Piercer.
We also have an Illumina Genome Analyzer (GAII) and have access to a Roche 454 sequencer. Our labs at Texas A&M have sequenced over 400 genomes of clinical isolates and isogenic mutants of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), Pseudomonas, non-tubuerculosis mycobacteria, and
several other human pathogens utilizing next-generation sequencers.
People
James C. Sacchettini, Ph.D.
Senior Investigator
Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
103 Biochemisty/Biophysics Building
Texas A&M University
phone: +1 979 845-1012
fax: +1 979 845-9274
jim.sacchettini@gmail.com
Adam J. Salazar
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
103 Biochemisty/Biophysics Building
Texas A&M University
phone: +1 979 862-7639
fax: +1 979 862-9274
ajsalazar@tamu.edu
Lacy Snow, B.S.
Administrative Assistant
Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics
103 Biochemisty/Biophysics Building
Texas A&M University
phone: +1 979 862-7637
fax: +1 979 862-9274
sacsecy@gmail.com