Facilities & Resources

Page mise à jour le 30/12/2014

INSERM / Université Paris-Sud Joint Research Unit 785 occupies rooms on the second floor north and in the basement of the Centre Hepato-Biliaire at Hopital Paul-Brousse. The unit is composed by a large common laboratory, several satellite rooms dedicated to specific technologies such as cell culture, electrophoresis, bacteriology, a cold room, a glassware and sterilization room and offices.

The main laboratory, an air-conditioned open area, offers up to 40 meters long of bench space that is fully equipped for biochemistry research, with facilities that include : a high-speed centrifuge with spin bucket and fix angular rotors, refrigerated centrifuges, spectrophotometers (one ml vial and microplate readers), a luminometer, a pH-meter, a chemical hood, a chemical cabinet, generators for electrophoresis facilities, common electrophoresis and blotting devices for protein studies (mini, midi, maxi apparatus), 4ºC, -20ºC, and -80ºC freezers, dry water bath, gel dryer, a vacuum speed vac, numerous shakers and rotators and 2 sink units.

The main laboratory also contains up to 9 meters long of desk equipped with computer stations.

The following research facilities are found on the same floor:

  • Two culture rooms, one committed to primary cultures and containing a laminar flow hood equipped with UV lamp and vacuum pump, a CO2 culture incubator, a centrifuge, an inverted microscope, a water bath, and three peristaltic pumps with tubing adapted for liver perfusion, and one dedicated for cell line cultures and contains three laminar flow hoods equipped with UV lamps and vacuum pumps, 3 CO2 culture incubators, a centrifuge, an inverted microscope combined with a digital camera, a water bath, two 4ºC refrigerators and two -20ºC freezers.
     
  • A dark room equipped for autoradiography revelation, a chemidoc imaging system station, and an UV transilluminator combined with a digital camera for nucleic acid research.
     
  • A bacteriology room with 10 meters long of bench space equipped for the handling of bacteria, a refrigerated centrifuge for 1.5 ml to 250 ml vials with adapted spin buckets and fixed rotors, a Bunsen burner, two water baths, a vacuum manifold for plasmid miniprep, and two bacteriology incubators with orbital shaking devices.
     
  • A nucleic acid electrophoresis room containing a 2-meter workbench equipped with electrophoresis power stations and electrophoresis devices for DNA and RNA, a precision balance, and a microwave oven.
     
  • An equipment room containing two thermocyclers, a real time PCR Sybr green thermocycler, and a Zeiss Axio Imager widefield fluorescence microscope (Widefield fluorescence imaging (e.g. Dapi, CFP, GFP, YFP, Alexa 488/568/594), Transmitted light images - brightfield, DIC and polarized light, Colour camera for IHC (eg H&E staining), Ideal for thin fixed specimens (oil objectives), Z-stacks).
     
  • A glassware and sterilization room containing a two-compartment sink stations, a work table for wrapping, a washing machine, a sterilizer, several glassware carts, a stacked drying oven, an ice machine, a milli-Q and distilled water station, and two precision balances for buffer preparation.
     
  • A cold room equipped with bench space and shelving.
     
  • Six office areas with desks and computer stations for the use of researchers and students.
  • On the same floor, the Centre Hepato-Biliaire offers benefits from an amphitheatre for use by clinicians, researchers and students for meetings and conferences (equipped with computers and a projector), a large meeting room equipped with computers and a projector and a library.

In the basement, the facilities of the research unit comprise:

  • An extraction room adapted for work on Nucleic Acids (RNA and DNA) and proteins extracted from human and animal tissue samples. It is equipped with a laminar flow hood, a chemical hood, an ice machine, an Ultra-Thurrax homogenizer, a Precellys 24 tissue homogenizer, a thermocycler, a 4°C waterbath, a centrifuge, and a sink station.
     
  • A clean room dedicated to PCR mastermix preparation, and containing 3 meters long of bench work, a PCR work station with UV lamp, a 4ºC refrigerator, and -20ºC freezers.
     
  • An immunohistology laboratory with a chemical hood containing a paraffin removal station and a hematoxylin/eosin staining gallery, 4 meters long of work bench, a pressure cooker, two waterbaths, a 4ºC refrigerator and -80ºC freezers, and all laboratory equipment for histology analyses. Researchers also have access to paraffin Hypercenter facilities, a paraffin embedding station, a microtome, and a cryomicrotome.
     
  • Two office areas with desks and computer stations for the use of researchers and students.

Within Hopital Paul-Brousse

the Unit has access to an air-conditioned room containing ultra-low temperature freezers with temperature alarm systems.

Within the Transgenic Animal Service (SEAT)

Scientists belonging to U785 unit have access to the Transgenic Animal Service (SEAT) facilities for their in vivo studies. Genetically-engineered rodent models are housed under controlled, clean conditions. The SEAT offers two rooms for in vivo experimentation equipped with an isoflurane inhalation gas anaesthesia system and bench space.

Andre Lwoff Institute

INSERM/ Université Paris-Sud Joint Research Unit 785 forms part of the Institut André Lwoff, a federative research structure (SFR) of Université Paris-Sud that associates six INSERM/Université Paris-Sud research units. One of the goals of the Institute is to enable a sharing of resources and facilities in order to promote research. These shared facilities include a stem cell and progenitor cell core facility, a technical platform, and 3 biosafety level 2 culture rooms containing laminar flow hoods equipped with UV lamps and vacuum pumps, a CO2 culture incubator, centrifuges, and water baths.

The shared technology platform comprises:

  • A nanodrop bioanalyzer
     
  • A Facscan, Fascalibur, and Facs Diva cell sorter,
     
  • A thermocycler and a real-time lightcycler 480,
     
  • A high-speed bench-top ultracentrifuge,
     
  • An Odyssey infrared scanner,
     
  • A confocal microscope,
     
  • A phosphoimager,
     
  • An irradiator,
     
  • A video microscope station, and
     
  • An orbitrap mass spectrometer.

External technology platforms

To apply cutting edge technologies in solving current physiopathologic questions, some INSERM/Université Paris-Sud Joint Research Unit 785 research projects are performed in collaboration with external technology platforms or research teams, which include: