The SBMU School of Pharmacy Laboratories
- The Labs of the Department of the Clinical Pharmacy of the SBMU School of Pharmacy
A-The Research Lab:
This lab is used in researches, and is not used in the general courses at PhD General in Pharmacy. In the lab, different clinical trials, and therapeutic drug monitoring are conducted. Presently, the lab is used for clinical pharmaco-kinetic tests, lung diseases, and drug therapy dimensions. Among the equipment in the lab, HPLC, Spirometer, Glucometer, and some other instruments for clinical tests may be named.
B- The Skill Lab:
The Skill Lab, or Educational Pharmacy practice lab, is a place where the students become familiar with medicinal products and medical instruments.
There is a collection of drug prescriptions wherein the students learn how to read the prescriptions and how to fill them up.
The training of all important information about the drugs, and clinical points, as well as necessary suggestions and recommendations to the patients are taught by the academic staff there.
The drug information search and practical seminars are held in the skill lab as well.
- The Labs of the Department of the Toxicology- Pharmacology of the SBMU School of Pharmacy
A-The Lab of the General Toxicology
The courses of Practical Toxicology & Pharmacology are taught for the PhD General Students in Pharmacy in this lab. Moreover, the course of Advanced Practical Toxicology, Advanced Practical Pharmacology, part of Analytical and Legal Toxicology, Cellular & Molecular Toxicology are taught in the lab as well.
The lab covers an area of 130 m² with a good ventilation system, three chemical hoods, and a laminar hood. An HPLC UV Detector, an ELISA Reader, UV Spectro=Photometer, an Electrophoresis Instrument, an Invert Microscope, and a Light Microscope are also available and run in the lab.
The lab is also used for holding general and specific workshops.
B- Behavioral Lab
In the Behavioral Lab, proposals and dissertations are worked on in which the drug effects in cases of seizures, inflammations, and measuring acute and chronic toxicity are done.
The lab is in an area of 65 m² and equipped with a ventilation system for performing research on animals. The lab includes facilities such as a Tail-Flick Apparatus, a Formalin Test Kit, an M E S Electroshock tool, a Memory Test Instrument, a Rotar Rood Kit, and a Steriotox Tool,
C- The Electro-Physiology Lab
The dissertations and research projects about drug and animal toxin effectiveness (soft & striped tissues) are conducted in this lab.
The lab covers an area of 65m², and includes tools and machinery, such as electro-physiography, stimulator, Organ Bath, Oscilloscopes, light microscope, instruments for recording ion canals, electrophoresis machine, and isolating and separating toxins.
D- Cell Culture Lab
In the Cell Culture Lab, the impacts of cell toxicity of compounds, cancer-inducing in animals, and the investigation of Arsenic distribution in cells are all among the projects being conducted at this lab.
The lab covers a space of about 100 m², and includes instruments, tools, and machinery as follows: a laminar hood, an invert microscope, a CO2 incubator, an electrophoresis machine, a PCR machine, an FTIR machine, and a fluorescence microscope.
E-Lab of Isolated cells and cellular fractions
The measurement of toxicity and mechanism of drugs and chemical materials are performed using isolated hepatocyte cells, renal proximal tubules, and animal neuroglia, as well as the modern isolated mitochondria technology use is among the projects under investigation at the lab.
The lab covers an area of about 100 m² and equipped with bio-reactors, fluou-cytometer, light microscope, and bi-canal perfusion pump.
F- Analytical Toxicology Lab
The calculation and measurement of mycotoxins in foodstuff is among the dissertations and projects conducted at this lab.
The lab is in an area of about 65 m² and is equipped with such instruments as HPLC with fluorescence detector and UV detector, a vacuum mini fouler, and an electrical mill.
G- Animal Lab Room:
The Animal Lab Room is a space with an area of 100 m² on the ground floor for keeping the animals necessary for the lab with 12 h of light and 12 h of darkness and a temperature of 25° C. The animals kept in this place include rats, rabbits, hamsters, etc.
- The Labs of the Department of Pharmacognosy & Biotechnology of the SBMU School of Pharmacy
The practical course of Medicinal Plants (Herbal Plants) is offered to the students of PhD General in Pharmacy in this lab. In the lab, the students study the herbs both microscopically and macroscopically, and become familiar with their recognition methods. Moreover, due to the presence of the herbarium in the lab, the recognition and keeping of the scientific names of the medicinal plants, collected from different places throughout the nation for educational and research purposes of the two departments, are done in this lab.
Pharmacognosy Educational Lab
The Pharmacognosy Practical Course for the students of PhD General of Pharmacy, and also the practical course of Extraction, Isolation, and Recognition of Natural Substances, and Medicinal Drug Control for the PhD students of Pharmacognosy are offered in this lab. In the lab, the students study the content of medicinal herbal chemical compounds, and become familiar with the methods of extracting, isolating, identifying, and determining the amount of each of the compounds.
The Other Labs:
Bearing in mind the vast areas of research activities in pharmacognosy and medicinal biotechnology, the department includes two separate research labs. In each of the labs research projects are conducted in PhD General in Pharmacy and PhD dissertations in pharmacognosy, as well as in biotechnology, and other research projects.
- The Biotechnology & Fermentation Lab:
A-The Biotechnology Lab:
In general, this lab is used to study and evaluate the biological impacts of resources and natural materials, as well as the activities related to tissue and cell culture, and genetic engineering.
B- The Fermentation Lab:
The Fermentation Lab is an educational-research lab in which both the practical courses of PhD in Biotechnology are held, and the research projects of PhD General in Pharmacy and PhD in Biotechnology, as well as the researches related to mass micro-organisms, such as the micro-organism culture, extract, isolation, and identification of active biological materials produced by micro-organisms, improvement in culture media conditions, producing active secondary metabolites produced by micro-organisms, and microbial bio-transformation are conducted and performed.
- The Phytochemistry Research Lab:
Basically, this lab is designed to study the extraction, purification, and identification of the active natural compounds, as well as the qualitative and quantitative analysis of natural products.
The equipment available at the labs of the Department of Pharmacognosy and Medicinal Biotechnology vary depending on their function, such as the UV-Vis Spectrophotometer, HPLC, electrophoresis, centrifuges, distillation tool, microscopes, various kinds of auto-cloves, ovens, incubators, hoods, shakers, Real Time PCR, etc.
- The Labs of the Department of Pharmaceutics:
1-Industrial Pharmacy Lab:
The educational activities of this lab include offering practical pharmaceutical courses in industrial pharmacy during PhD General Program Period in Pharmacy, as well as in PhD level.
Moreover, in the lab, many studies are performed including production of various drug forms (tablets, syrups, ointments, etc.), and the modern pharmacy systems (such as sustain release tablets, Nano-particles, liposomes, micro-particles, and trans-dermal patches); evaluation of their physic-chemical properties, and also basic issues in pharmacy, such as the investigation of factors involved in the production of a product and their effective properties.
This lab includes a collection of equipment for production and physic-chemical investigation of the following drug forms:
- Tablets: vibratory granular, sigma mixer, single punch, dissolution, hardness tester, disintegration time, flow-meter, etc.
- Solutions & Suspensions: Different kinds of mixers, homogenizers, solution fillers, etc.;
- Suppository:Casting tools, melting the suppository base, infiltration tests, melting, etc.
- Ointments:Planetary mixers, ointment fillers, diffusion cells for drug release, etc.
Among the other instruments and equipment in the lab, the semi-automatic capsule filler, the ampule filler, the vial filler, incubator, UV Spectrophotometer, viscometer and rheometer, tension meter, muco-adhesive strength tester system, and duration of muco-adhesive system may be mentioned.
Moreover, the lab can provide the following services to the research centers and drug industry:
- Viscository tests of solutions, fluids, semi-solids, and rheology tests;
- Dissolution and release tests;
- Production of capsule and tablet samples for clinical studies;
- Production of creams, ointments, and gels for research purposes;
- Solving drug formulation problems
2- The Quality Control Lab:
The practical course of drug physico-chemical control is offered in this lab. Moreover, the projects, and PhD General in Pharmacy proposals, and assistantship projects in modern methods of basic material and pharmaceutical product analyses, as well as quality control tests on both research and industrial samples are performed in this lab.
Moreover, the lab provides the following services for research centers and drug industry:
- The in vitro tests of drug products, such as tablets, capsules, suppositories, and food complements;
- Dissolution, assay, content, impurity, related substance, and CMC tests;
- Semi-solid release tests;
- Transdermal sensitivity tests on topical and mucosal products;
- Sun protection Factor (SPF) test on creams;
- NMR & IR Spectrum;
- DSC (DSC-60, SHIMADZU) spectra;
- TGA (TGA-50, SHIMADZU) Spectrum;
- TM (TM-60, SHIMADZU) Spectrum;
- Optimal L-90 K Ultra Centrifuge Bekman Coulter
3- Microbial Control Lab:
The practical part of the Microbial Control Course for the PhD General in Pharmacy is offered in this lab. The research grounds of this lab are a lot including:
- Investigation of anti-microbial effect of natural and synthetic substances;
- medical microbiology (General investigation of anti-bio-gram pattern of disease-producing microbes;
- Quality control of pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, such as the evaluation of the efficiency of disinfectants on resistant micro-organisms;
- Industrial microbiology and pharmaceutical biotechnology;
The most important instrument and equipment in this lab are as follows: auto clove, oven, different incubator, microbiologic hoods, and spectrophotometer.
Moreover, the lab is capable of rendering the following services to the research centers and drug industry:
- Microbial count;
- Microbial count along with studying to see whether specific micro-organisms are present;
- Sterilizing tests;
- Tests of evaluating the protective agents;
- Investigating the anti-microbial effect of a kinetic-free substance per each micro-organism;
- Investigating the anti-microbial effect of a kinetic-having substance per each micro-organism;
- Assaying and determining the amount of substances by microbial techniques;
- Aemes test and studying the substance mutogenecity effects;
4- The Bio-Pharmacy Lab:
The Bio-Pharmacy and pharmacokinetic lab is both an educational lab and research one. The activities performed in this lab include the investigation of the effective factors on drug absorption in various prescription methods, the pharmacokinetic study of drugs in vivo, designing Nano-drug transferring systems (liposomes, and polymeric Nano-particles), and studying the effect of Nano-particle properties in in vivo drugs, including projects and dissertations. In this lab, the course of Specific Bio-Pharmacy, and part of practical Industrial Pharmacy Course are offered for assistants in pharmaceutics. Some of the instruments available in this lab include HPLC equipped with UV and fluorescence, homogenizer, extruder, solvent evaporator, UV a spectrophotometer, shakers, dissolving instruments, centrifuges, a steering heater, light microscopes, and an ultra-sonic bath.
5- Drug Delivery Lab (I)
The practical courses of Pharmaceutics II & III for the PhD General in Pharmacy are offered in this lab.
At the lab, the students get familiar with the various methods of drug making, such as making capsules, ointments, creams, solutions, suspensions, powders, granules, and suppositories.
The lab is also used for research purposes, and most researches relate to the production of solid drugs, and in both PhD, and PhD General in Pharmacy, the students use the lab.
Among the facilities in the lab, one can note to Spray Drier, Freeze Drier, Ball Mill, HPLC, Tapped Density Determining, and Dissolution.
Moreover, the lab provides the following services to the research centers and drug industry:
- Spray Dry on drug powders (Model: Buchi Mini Spray Drier B-290);
- Performing Ball Mills on drug powders in order to reduce substance sizes (Ball Mill, Model: Retsch PM 100);
- Tap Density & Balk Density Tests on powders;
- Performing freeze drying on drug solutions and side substances (Freeze Dryer: Model 1-2 L D Plus
6- Drug Delivery Lab II
The Drug Delivery Lab II is an educational lab for PhD students. It is a research lab; but besides research, it is active in designing and constructing drug delivery systems, and specifically in gene delivery, protein delivery, transdermal drug delivery, modeling of biological mucosa, designing and constructing lipid Nano-particles (such as liposomes, SLN, micro- & Nano-emulations), polymeric drug delivery (such as polymeric missiles), Nano- & micro-spheres, Nano-suspensions, Nano-carbon tubes, as well as designing and constructing drug release systems.
There are also HPLC instruments, various specialized microscopes (polarization, etc.), various sonophortic and iontophortic systems, high speed homogenizers, centrifuges, vertex, various cells, steering heaters, under water steering systems, and de-ionized distilled water tools.
7- The Physico-Mechanical Lab
This lab is more research based than educational. In the lab, the researchers can study the physicochemical and thermal properties of various substances (such as determining the melting point, polymorphism in different temperatures, studying polymers for their destruction in different temperatures). The facilities in the lab are among others, TMA, DSC, TGA< the analysis of powder and suspension particle sizes (Mastersizer 2000), and charging Nano-particles ( Nano Zetasizer ZS), Ultra-Centrifuge Machine, HPLC/GPC equipped with UV&RI detector, and a -80° C Freezer.
Moreover, the lab is capable of rendering the following services to the research centers and drug industries:
- Ability to measure particle sizes such as powders, and fluid environments up to 20 Nano-meter (Mastersizer 2000 Particle Size Analyzer);
- The potential to measure particles between 600 angstroms to 6 microns, as well as the ability to measure Zeta Potential;
- Determining solution polymer molecular weight in organic solvent (Operating Range: g/ml 200-2000000
- The Labs of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry:
1-The Lab general & Analytical Chemistry:
The courses of General & Analytical Chemistry and the Physics Course for the students of PhD General in Pharmacy are taught in this lab. The research projects related to quantitative analysis (determining the amount and % of purity of basic substances) of medicinal materials which do not require instruments, are performed here.
The lab is in an area of 88m², and is equipped with a vacuum system and central nitrogen gas, as well as an analytical balance, centrifuge, distilled water-making equipment, an oven, pH-meter, Ion-Meter, and other glass-made tools.
2- Organic Chemistry Lab:
The Courses Organic Chemistry I & II for the students of PhD General in Pharmacy are taught in this lab. Moreover, research projects on the synthesis of basic medicinal materials made or recently designed can be performed in this lab. The lab is in area of 88m² and equipped with a vacuum system and central nitrogen gas system, and other tools for syntheses of chemical compounds. Some of these include oven, Chauffe Balloon, a digital balance, a rotary evaporator, vacuum pumps, and glass-made tools.
3- The Research Lab of Medicinal Chemistry:
The practical courses of Medicinal Chemistry for PhD levels in Pharmacy are offered in this lab. The research grounds of this lab are about the syntheses of newly-designed drug materials conducted as dissertations or research projects.
The lab is in an area of 130 m² and includes the following instruments: a central vacuum system, central nitrogen system, a vacuum oven, a microwave oven, rotary evaporators, distilled water-making tools, vacuum pumps, steering heater, Chauffe Balloon, UV Cabinet, and various kinds of glass tools.
4- The Research Lab of Medicinal Chemistry II,
In this lab, the research projects and proposals of the students of PhD General in Pharmacy in synthesizing new and old drug compounds are conducted.
The lab is in an area of 88m² and includes instruments such as steering heater, Chauffe Balloon, rotary evaporators, ovens, central vacuum system, central nitrogen gas system, and different kinds of glass ware tools.
5- The Instrumental Analytical Lab:
In this lab, the practical part of the Course Analytical Instrumental Chemistry including teaching of methods for determining the amount and scientific evaluations for PhD & PhD General of Pharmacy are taught. Moreover, the research grounds of the lab are vast and include the following:
Drug analysis, qualitative & quantitative control of medicinal substances, drug pharmacokinetic studies, stability and purification studies of synthesized substances, and drug abuses. The lab is in an area of 52m ². The lab equipment include the following: HPLC, Gas GC, UV Chromatography, Spectrophotometry, centrifuges, microfuges, pH-meter, and glassware tools.
6- The Radio-pharmacy Lab:
This is one of the research labs of the SBMU School of Pharmacy located on the Ground Floor of the school. It is under instrumentation and is being equipped. It is divided into two sections: General Section and Hot Lab. It is equipped with a ventilation system with a changeable carbon filter at the out section. The Hot Lab is a controlled section for work with radioactive materials. The ceiling and the walls are lead-sealed. It is also equipped with a chemical hood and an instrument for evaluating environmental radiation. A part of the Practical Physics Course is taught in the lab. The lab is currently equipped with steering heater, pH-meter, a digital balance, Gama & Beta counters, Radio-nuclide dose calibrator, a shaker, an oven, CO2 Incubator, and a fridge centrifuge. The lab is capable of performing the following activities:
- Marking proteins, peptides, drug formulations with the help of various radio-nuclides for both in vivo and in vitro studies;
- Synthesizing and designing new radio-drugs for diagnostic, treatment, and research purposes;
- Performing Radioligand Receptor Binding Assay
7- The general Instrumental Analysis Lab:
Though this lab is presently directed by one of the academic staff of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, it is used as a general instrumental lab for all departments of the school. Many courses are taught for PhD & PhD General in Pharmacy. In the lab, the analysis, determination, and purification % of basic substances and medicinal substances (based on the mentioned tests in VSP and BP) may be conducted.
The following is available in the lab:
- GCMass, LCMass, Infrared speetroscopy (IR),
- Atomic Absorption (A.A) Ultraviolet spectrophotometry (UV)
- HPLC, Polarography, Polarimeter, Capillary Electrophoresis