The Core Facilities currently comprise seven Units: Genomics, Proteomics, Advanced Light Microscopy, Biomolecular Screening & Protein Technologies, FACS, Bioinformatics, and the just-established Tissue Engineering Unit. The area also comprises the Histology Service and the Storage and Computing Unit that are only accessible to internal users. The overall activity in core facilities continues to increase every year, a success that is achieved through the constant renewal of equipment and the implementation of the latest methodologies by the different facilities.

In 2015, we purchased the tri-hybrid Orbitrap Fusion Lumos mass spectrometer, the first of its kind to be installed in Europe. Major technologies developed include single virus sorting, exosome and synaptosome identification and isolation, new pipelines for biomarker discovery, and analysis tools for resolution improvements in STED. We are also working towards establishing single cell sequencing in emulsion (Drop-seq), the set-up of an automated FISSEQ protocol, and characterization of the proteome of exosomes. All these new implementations have allowed our programme to provide the state-of-the-art services that characterize the CRG core facilities.

In response to the needs of several users, we created a Tissue Engineering facility in September 2015 devoted to generation of iPS cells and induction of their differentiation, performing genome editing technologies in ES and iPS cells, and in embryos, and establishing 3D cell cultures and organoids. The unit will devote some time to set up all the services and train their technicians before offering these technologies to the community.

Over the course of 2015 we have started new collaborative projects with hospitals, ranging from proteomic analyses to establish diagnostic molecular classifiers, to microbiome projects involving several core facilities, and the establishment of new workflows and pipelines for the analysis of microbiomes from different sample origins. This workflow was used in the mouth microbiome project “Saca la Lengua” (“Stick Out Your Tongue”), a citizen science project coordinated by the CRG in collaboration with the CREAL and the “la Caixa” Bank Foundation. The CRG’s core facilities performed the DNA extraction, sequencing and data analyses of the microbiome present in the saliva of 1,600 students from schools around Spain (more information in the ‘Communications, Public Engagement and Science Education’ section).

The CRG’s core facilities are not only well-established locally, with users coming from different institutions in Spain and abroad, but are also recognized partners in European initiatives. The Advanced Light Microscopy Unit is a partner in the ESFRI initiative EuroBioimaging (EuBI), and its head, Timo Zimmerman, is the national coordinator for biological imaging. The facility was nominated in 2015 to be one of the first generation EuBI nodes to be set up in Europe. The Genomics and Proteomics Units are listed in MERIL, the European Research Infrastructure portal listing facilities with more-than-national relevance (the CRG is the only Spanish Proteomics Facility).

The Core Facilities are a member of the Core Facilities Excellence Alliance “Core For Life”, as described in the ‘International dimension’ section.

 

Mònica Morales
Head