Beadle Center Laboratories are equipped with the latest in scientific instruments for research in the life sciences. They have been designed to provide a productive, safe and interactive work environment for faculty, staff, students and visiting scientists. Individual laboratories are equipped with scientific instruments according to their specialized needs. In addition, each of the three floors of the Beadle Center contain shared facilities and equipment such as controlled temperature rooms, dark rooms, autoclaves, and ultra-centrifuges. There is also centralized access to phosphorimages, laser densitometers, gel documentation stations, a variety of specialized incubators and other costly equipment for use by researchers in the Beadle Center and elsewhere on campus.
Core Research Facilties provide access to state-of-the-art instruments and expert assistance in many of the leading-edge methods in molecular biology, biochemistry, proteomics, bioinformatics, microscopy and biotechnology. Core Facility services are available to researchers in all Nebraska universities and colleges as well as those in private industry. A biological safety laboratory (containment level 3) allows UNL scientists to work with important human and animal pathogens in a safe enviroment.
The Beadle Center is designed to serve students, faculty, staff and the state of Nebraska for decades to come. Its primary goal is to be a catalyst for advances in science teaching and research. The promise of the Beadle Center is that its scientists and students will produce the knowledge and technologies needed for continued social and economic progress. Beadle Scientists are striving to discover fundamental biological and chemical concepts in areas such as photosynthesis, gene regulation, cellular metabolism, and growth and development in a variety of organisms from microbes to humans.
It is hoped that discoveries in these areas, in turn, will lead to the development of new vaccines, the genetic engineering of plants and farm animals for production of higher quality foods, the modification of microorganisms to produce more effective medicines or to deal with the elimination of environmental pollutants. The modern resources offered by the Beadle Center will allow researchers to work far into the future toward achieving the goals which prompted the creation of this outstanding facility.
George W. Beadle was born in Wahoo, Nebraska, in 1903 and died in 1989. After graduating from Wahoo High School, he enrolled at the University of Nebraska, where he received his B.S. in 1926 and his M.S. in 1927, both in agronomy. Beadle intended to return to the farm after his university education, but he was persuaded by Professor Frank Keim to go on to graduate school at Cornell. There he was a key member of the laboratory of Professor R. A. Emerson (formerly a Nebraska Faculty member) which laid the foundations of modern corn genetics. He received his Ph.D. in 1931.
He spent most of his career as a faculty member at Caltech and at Stanford. In 1961 he was appointed president of the University of Chicago. Dr. Beadle is responsible for the "One gene-One Enzyme" concept that lies at heart of modern genetics. For this and other achievements, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1958. He received over 30 honorary degrees, including one from the University of Nebraska in 1949.
