Other equipment

The quality control laboratory is equipped for the determination of bacterial endotoxins, mycoplasma and for the isolation of bacteria for environmental monitoring. It is provided of blood counters and the Microplate Reader Spark 20M (Tecan), this latter equipped with a latest generation monochromator, heating module and integrated CCD camera module, flow cytometer and high-end fluorescence microscopes.

The laboratory also contains laminar flow hood, air samples, spectrophotometers, analytical scales, incubators for cells and bacteria and supportive instrumentation. Instrumentation is subjected to regular IQ/OQ and when requested, PQ. Critical instruments are monitored and alarmed H24.

Flow cytometry is a laboratory technique used in biology for the characterization of cellular populations and their interactions. Cells are identified in the analysis samples according to the presence or absence of specific surface or intracellular markers. Moreover this technique allows to quantify physical parameters of cells as dimension, internal complexity and also nucleic acid content during the different phases of cell cycle. Cells are marked through a defined panel with specific antibodies coupled with fluorescence probes that recognize certain cellular antigens. After which cells are analyzed by the lasers of the flow cytometer and their signal is registered and translated as fluorescence intensity diagram.

Flow citometry laboratory is the core of our characterization approach of cellular populations. This laboratory is able to perform:

• Immunophenotype analysis
• Cell cycle analysis (DNA content)
• Apoptosis analysis
• Cellular viability assay
• Cell-mediated cytotoxicity assay
• Cellular proliferation assay
• Immunomodulation assay
• Quantification of intra-cytoplasmic molecules
• Quantification of cytokines