Facility for Advanced Cell Engineering (FACE)

The Facility for Advanced Cell Engineering (FACE) is a state-of-the-art laboratory located on the UNM Health Sciences Center campus, on the ground floor of Reginald Heber Fitz Hall. The mission of the FACE is to provide infrastructure for the development and study of human stem cell models for biomedical research and engineering. Spanning over 3000 sq. ft. of newly-renovated space, the FACE is divided into eleven rooms and is meant to be a completely self-contained lab space for three principal investigators and their personnel. The rooms are separated into a main, open-concept wet lab (G78, 1500 sq. ft.) that houses seven full-size wet-lab benches, two fully-outfitted culture rooms (G78A-B; 400 sq. ft.), an overflow lab with additional wet-lab benches and fume hood (G71, 538sq ft.), two freezer rooms, autoclave/ice machine room, as well as three offices.

 Within the FACE are housed five Biosafety Level-2, Labconco Logic+ Class II, A2 biological safety cabinets, three HeraCell 150i CO₂ incubators, an adjustable speed centrifuge (Eppendorf 5702), and a Olympus CKX41 inverted microscope. Room G78C (51 sq. ft.) and G71 each contain fume hoods, while G71 also contains a water purification system and dishwasher. Room G78D (143 sq. ft.) contains a VWR Symphony ultracold (-80^oC) freezer. G78 also contains a standard (-20^oC) freezer, deli-style 4^oC refrigerator, as well as CBS liquid nitrogen tank. G74 (128 sq. ft.) contains two autoclaves as well as an additional dishwasher. The main and overflow labs contain twenty-two desks to house staff and trainees.

The director of the facility, Jason P. Weick PhD, has over 17 years of experience working with human pluripotent stem cells, human cerebral organoids, as well as primary neurospheres from patient biopsies. His laboratory is uses these model systems to examine the functional development and degeneration of neuronal circuits under normal conditions as well as in response to environmental or genetic perturbations.