The machine shop in the Department of Neurobiology currently consists of two lathes, a milling machine, a bandsaw and two drill presses. It is managed by Mike Lafratta. This core will bring together Mike's forty years of experience he has in building and designing neurobiological equipment, offering more specified techniques that could ever be supplied by a machine shop serving the school's departments. His experience is not limited to building metallic or plastic machinery, for he has taken advantage of years of development of equipment by a large number of exceptional scientists. Many of the devices he makes have gone through many model adjustments over the years to suit the department's needs. It is rare when he requires anything but a rough sketch to design what is needed for a lab. Due to his expertise, he is able to make useful suggestions as to improvements of a particular design. Additionally, he offers knowledge of solving and fixing and mechanical problem encountered in the labs. During the past years, he has provided invaluable service to the numbers of the program project grant by building and adapting countless custom optical components, microscopes for use with brain slices, adaptors for manipulators, perfusion setups, temperature control apparatus, recording chambers and countless other contributions to the research programs of Drs. Bean Clapham, Fishbach and Regehr. The machine shop will be one of the most extensively used by the Core members as they begin new projects related to this program project grant.
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