General Tissue Culture Suite

The tissue culture facility contains a number of BioQuell microbiological class II safety cabinets for general cell culture work (with dedicated incubators, waterbaths, centrifuges and fridges) and a further dedicated tissue culture suite for primary isolation of cells routinely used for the isolation of bovine retinal epithelial cells.

Coy Hypoxia Chamber

Cells can be grown under normal cell culture conditions (37 oC, 5 % CO2) with reduced O2 concentrations, typically 1 %. Cells such as outgrowth endothelial cells, HeLa and HEK293 are routinely exposed to hypoxia using this chamber.

    

 

EPC tissue Culture Suite

A dedicated laboratory containing 2 tissue culture hoods for the culture and maintenance of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) from adult and umbilical cord blood. Cells are grown on collagen or fibronectin coated plastic-ware and maintained under normal tissue culture conditions (37 oC, 5 % CO2).

Inverted Phase Microscopes

A range of upright, inverted, phase/bright field microscopes are available including an upright Nikon Eclipse E400 fluorescent microscope and an inverted Nikon Eclipse TE2000-U fluorescent microscope both with high resolution image capture cameras (Nikon DS-Ri1 and DS-QiMC respectively). Both systems operate with NIS Elements software for image handling and analysis.

Flow Cytometer

State of the Art Technology for Cell Analysis at CVVS includes the Attune Acoustic Focusing Flow Cytometer, the CASY Cell Counter, and the autoMACS Separator. For further information please contact Mr. Noel Duffy/Dr. Reinhold Medina.

    

Berthold TriStar LB 941 Multimode Microplate Reader

Luminescence, BRET and BRET², fluorescence, FRET and absorbance measurements. Typically used for assessment of lucigenin-enhanced chemiluminescence (as a measure of NADPH oxidase activity) and quantification of fluorescent assays (e.g. caspase activity).