So the Center for Microbial Chemical Biology is the core lab for the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research. So this this core lab was created in 2009 as a result of investments from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Government of Ontario and McMaster. So the CMCB offers a tremendous amount of support for a number of different areas of expertise whether that's chemistry whether it's high-throughput compound screening whether it's analytical analysis of metabolites from biological samples or from other samples. Whether that's production of proteins, cell growth - all of this is in one spot So in the high-throughput screening lab we offer any sort of high-throughput project that might require automation of liquid handling. In particular we have a focus on drug discovery type projects so we have a half a million small molecule compound collection which is the largest academic compound collection in Canada. So researchers have access to that library through us and they can use that on our liquid handling instruments. We also have a Protein and Cell Biology lab So this features Biosafety Level One and Biosafety Level 2 growth of micro organisms or we also do eukaryotic and mammalian type cells. In the Protein lab we have equipment for protein purification, we have express proteins, you can purify antibodies we can do a ELISA type assays we get a lot of clinical type samples where people will want to do an ELISA for it and then we help them we have biological safety cabinets that they just need to use safe sterile environments. So there's a lot of different things that you can do in the Protein lab. So in our Mass Spec area we are focused on small molecules particularly we are very good at targeted metabolomic type studies and we have both liquid chromatography and gas chromatography type platforms that are available for our users and then we have a couple of different types of mass spectrometers and we're able to do fragmentation type studies, we have some that are very high resolution.

In the Synthesis lab what we offer is equipment for people to come in and use and this is all focused on synthesis of compounds or natural product isolations The CMCB staff are integral to the success of the lab. They are highly trained experts in their fields who are there to make sure that first of all the equipment is well run that the equipment is well maintained but also to help you design experiments. The most satisfying part about my job is having the opportunity of being part of a great research that happens here and my involvement with students. Like being able to the troubleshooting, the being able to help them, being approachable, the communication, the respect. I'm very grateful for being part of the CMCB. Like I've always found the training experience to be really thorough but the best part is that it's not just like a one-shot a one-time deal. They help you throughout your project. Our highly-trained technical staff can suggest the right way to do that experiment can identify the right controls to use and really walk that person through the entire process and then once that person becomes comfortable with it the staff can then turn over the experiment to the student or to the postdoc or whoever might be doing the work and that way you get proficiency training on very technical pieces of equipment with people who are absolute experts in it. I really like it whenever I use something that I learned in the classroom. I also like applying my learning to real-world research. I think it's really exciting and I also just like the work environment a lot. There's always lots of people around, lots of people to learn from. The CMCB continues to amaze me with a dynamic environment, their motivation for success we have and our leading technology.