Platform for the Hypoxic Analysis of Cell Behavior (HYP-ACB)

The Hyp-ACB facility is a complex infrastructure able to measure, under normoxic and hypoxic conditions, the metabolic activity of living cells, with particular attention to the respiratory activity of mitochondria, in parallel with analysis of gene expression. The facility allows monitoring cell metabolism and gene expression under variable oxygen tensions, thus reproducing more closely the cell or tissue microenvironment(s) in both physiological and pathological conditions.
Understanding how metabolism and gene expression can be turned on or off in a concerted manner allows unravelling the molecular mechanisms underlying physiological metabolic homeostasis and what goes awry in disease. It will also provide information on how biological systems react to environmental stimuli. Possible applications of this technology include multiple areas of biological research, spanning from molecular oncology, cardiovascular diseases, immunology, neurodegeneration, metabolic disorders, ageing, stem cells,tissue engineering, host-pathogen interactions, toxicology, drug discovery, environmental biology, bioengineering, nutrition etc.
The Hyp-ACB laboratory includes the following key equipment :

Seahorse XFe96 Agilent
Hypoxic cabin Don Whitley mod. i2 Workstation
HypoxyLab™ Bench-top physiological oxygen incubator and workstation
Bench-top physiological oxygen incubator and workstation
Sterile hood Thermo Scientific MSC ADVANTAGE 1.2
Incubator Thermo Scientific FORMA Steri-cycle 250i
Microscope EVOS XL CORE Invitrogen
Real-Time PCR Applied Biosystems QuantStudio 3

Yes. The Infrastructure is open to internal and external users.
In particular, the infrastructure is included in a European Infrastructure network called MOSBRI (Molecular Scale Biophysics Research Infrastructure) (start date 01/07/2021-30/06/2025), through which European and non-European users can ask TransNationalAccess (TNA) with support from European funding. Please visit the website https://www.mosbri.eu/ to learn how to apply for access (expenses covered by EU funding) . The amount of time allocated through MOSBRI is about 10% of the total Infrastructure available time (subjected to small variations).

BASIC - Access by expert users (only instruments usage)
INTERMEDIATE - Access by non expert users (materials, instruments and sample handling by Facility Staff)
ADVANCED - Access by non expert users (as for INTERMEDIATE plus experimental design and data analysis by facility Staff)