Bio-bank

The biobank at UMR1283 is under the responsibility of Philippe FROGUEL. Two technicians are devoted to the biobank: Frederic ALLEGAERT and Thimotée BEKE. The biobank included more than 366,000 biological samples. Its mission is to receive, extract, quantify, maintain and manage the samples.

Thanks to our experience, the laboratory is able to answer to all the services for the preparation and extraction of DNA, RNA from blood, saliva or other tissues and cells.

 

  • DNA extraction platform
Autopure LS 1Starlet Hamilton

Our robotic platform included 3 DNA extractors, enabling the extraction on a wide range of volume (200μl to 20 ml) of many types of samples, such as fresh or frozen blood samples, saliva samples (via Oragene kit), buffy coat and tissues.

  • We carry out the extractions with the aid of the Autopure (Qiagen) by saline precipitation. This automate can extract 96 samples per day and allows automated high-throughput purification of genomic DNA from large volumes, to provide large amounts of DNA, and over a wide range of samples (fresh or frozen whole blood, buffy coat, saliva, tissue, …).
  • We also use Macherey-Nagel silica membrane technology to purify samples. Extractions are automated with 2 Hamilton Starlet. This process allows to work on sample volumes ranging from 200μl to 3-4ml of blood, but also saliva or tissue

These techniques make it possible to obtain high quality DNA (nanodrop 1.80-2.0 ratio) and stable for long-term storage (biobanking).

In addition, we have incubators (MAXQ800 Thermo Electron) for rehydration and resuspension of DNA. The extracted DNAs are then assayed and standardized on an Infinite® F200pro fluorometer from Tecan®.

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  • Infinite F200 – Tecan
infinite f200
  • The Infinite® 200 is a spectrophotometer with the ability to impact absorbance and fluorescence measurements. Different detection modules for the FRET and BRET assay, in a 6 to 384 well plate format, to easily and accurately quantify small sample volumes. This is used at laboratory for fluorimetry to determine double strand DNA concentration.

To ensure the complete management of the life cycle of the samples and their associated data, we use the MBioLIMS® software solution from Modul-bio. MBioLIMS allows a complete and secure traceability of supports thanks to a computerized management of the patients, samples and their derivatives.

For long-term storage, samples are stored in freezers at -80 ° C, we also have cold rooms at + 4 ° C and -20 ° C for short-term storage. These DNAs are available to researchers for their research projects and external collaborations.

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  • RNA extraction platform
  • QIAcube HT and Qiacube from Qiagen are automated workstations for RNA purification from QIAGEN kits.12 samples for the Qiacube and 96 for Qiacube HT can be processed simultaneously. The steps following lysis and homogenization are fully automated.

The quality of the purified RNA is comparable to that obtained in manual technique, and ensures a simple and efficient isolation of a high quality total RNA suitable for any application such as New Generation Sequencing and real-time PCR

In the laboratory, we carry out the extraction of various tissues, we are currently working on muscular and hepatic tissues, it is possible to develop protocols for other types of tissues on request, and each tissue being specific it will be necessary in this case to carry out a pilot project.

RNA samples are monitored with a capillary electrophoresis system. We have the Bio Analyzer (chip of 12 samples) and Labchip (broadband). These methods allow the separation, quantification and qualitative analysis of samples.

 QIAcube_small_01qiacube