Alembic: A dvanced L ight and E lectron M icroscopy B io I maging C enter

Alembic is envisioned as an environment in which biological experimentation requiring electronic or optical imaging will be expedited through the ready access to state-of-the-art instrumentation. Modern biological imaging technology has become sufficiently sophisticated as to require specialized expertise and technology that is often beyond the reach of individual investigators. Nonetheless a broad range of biological investigators will derive significant benefit from access to such avant-garde technology, particularly as we begin the post-genomic era of biomedical research.

CFCM: C ore F acility for C onditional M utagenesis

In June 1999 Telethon Foundation established in collaboration with the San Raffaele Biomedical Science Park of Milan, the San Raffaele-Telethon Core Facility for Conditional Mutagenesis (CFCM) to strengthen studies in animal models. Researchers funded by  Telethon will take advantage of the CFCM services at a very low costs; the service is also available to Researchers not funded by Telethon that will pay the entire cost of the service. The CFCM will generate knockout mice (KO) or transgenic mice (tg) or will perform rederivation on existing mice. The mice produced at CFCM will be SPF certified so that they can enter any SPF animal facility. Eventually the customer can negotiate to prolong further the mice housing in the animal facility.

MCFB: M icroarray C ore F acility and B ioinformatics

Microarray technology is currently present in UVS as a partnership with IFOM in Milano. This gives us access to 25 000 human Unigene clones. This collection is physically present in UVS and is ordered. In the framework of this application, we plan to organise a Microarray Core Facility and Bioinformatics service (MCFB), that should provide a spotting service on the solid supports, hybridization to investigator-provided cDNA preparations, and reading and analysis of the hybridization signals. The technical details of the system that will be chosen have not been finalized, but we reckon that this service will be essential for the support of most research lines in UVS.

ProMiFa: Pro tein Mi crosequencing Fa cility

The Protein Microsequencing Facility was established in 2000 at the Scientific Institute San Raffaele-DIBIt, in collaboration with IFOM (FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology), under the sponsorship of FIRC (Federazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro). The facility has the purpose to provide a protein micro-characterization service employing the most advanced technology. Access to mass spectrometry and bioinformatics is a crucial key in the emerging field of proteomics, the large scale study of proteins and of their interactions, which is giving a major contribution to the description and understanding of biological processes at the molecular level.