The role of the Biological Laboratory (BioLab) at ALBA is to provide state-of-the-art scientific equipment and services in different areas of biological research to the Life Science beamlines, academic community and industrial sector.
The BioLab has an extension of 225 m2 divided into different biosafety areas. The largest area (BSL1) contains the general laboratory equipment and work benches. A second area (BSL2) is a 17m2 room dedicated to sample preparation for X-ray cryo-tomography and cryo-EM equipped for cell culture, sample grid preparation and virus handling. The third area (also BSL2) is a 14m2 lab for mammalian cell culture only.
Equipment
Common equipment includes fumehood, ultrafreezers, refrigerators, autoclave, centrifuges, LN2 filling point and a 20m2 cold room.
Services
Protein expression and purification
The protein production platform specialized for obtaining suitable quantities of purified protein for crystallographic studies is also available for users. The platform is equipped with incubators for bacterial growth at different temperatures, sonicator and a cell disruptor for recombinant protein overexpression in Escherichia coli and an AKTA pure FPLCs and a wide variety of chromatography columns for further purification. For more details about rates please ask.
Protein Crystallization
A protein crystallization platform is also offered to all users. It is equipped with a mosquito-LCP droplet dispenser for soluble proteins and for membrane proteins, a 96-tip pipette for dispensing crystallization conditions, a dragon fly for the preparation of optimized conditions, a MX one for mixing conditions and a plate sealer. For more details about rates please ask our staff (contacts below).
Crystal Farm
The crystallization platform also includes a Formulatrix Imager RI 1000 (available for users) for crystallization plate storage and visualization. The imager has capacity for 500 plates and includes visible and UV light imaging. Remote access is allowed through Rock Maker web: https://crystalfarm.cells.es
Fragment screening
A core set of the Maybridge Ro3 diversity fragment library with 1000 compounds is available to the users for drug discovery purposes. Fragment screening campaigns are facilitated thanks to the recent acquisition of a crystal shifter (OLT) for fast freezing of the crystals and subsequent diffraction at XALOC beamline. Ask to the XALOC staff for more details.
Location
The BioLab is located in the ALBA experimental hall close to the Life Science beamlines.
