Estefania Segalés
E-mail: ESegales@santpau.cat
Margarita Domingo
Currently, in vitro culture techniques are essential for the research carried out by many number of scientific groups. The cell culture service offers an infrastructure with different facilities that reach a total area of more than 400m2, located on the 1st and 2nd floors of the main building, plus a laboratory on pav.11 of the old site. These are laboratories where research groups and those who may require it, can carry out the experimental part of cell cultures of their research projects.
The service consists of different facilities where users can work with primary cultures obtained from human and experimental animal tissues, continuous cell lines and Level I and II Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). In each of the facilities, users have the adequate and basic equipment necessary to obtain and maintain cell cultures: laminar flow cabinets and biological safety cabinets (a total of 25), CO2 incubators (28), ovens, centrifuges, water baths, inverted microscopes, balances, vacuum traps, cell counters, refrigerators, freezers (-20 and -80°C), hybridization ovens and autoclaves.
Equipment such as: special biosafety cabinets to work with cytostatic products and/or nanoparticles, fluorescence and image capture microscopes, binocular microscopes with lighting and display screen, particle counters, UV stations and nucleofection equipment are located in these facilities.
In addition, the service has hypoxia stations and a laboratory restricted to the use of radioactivity in cultures, a laboratory to carry out bacterial cultures and a laboratory where biological samples can be processed (not related to obtaining cultures) that require handling under biosafety conditions.
The staff of the service is dedicated to keep the laboratory in optimal working conditions. They take care of preventive maintenance, equipment control, cleaning and disinfection, daily supervision of the correct functioning of the instruments (cabinets and incubators), management and processing of waste, autoclave sterilization, internal work in the laboratory, calibration of equipment and controls (mycoplasma, surface contamination, sterilization procedures,…). More important, they advise and train users for the correct use of laboratories and support them with any question or request regarding equipment or working conditions, as well as authorizations for access and use of biological material.
The person in charge of the service forms part of the service users’ commission, the Biosafety Committee and the IR Quality Committee at the same time, a fact that allows her to integrate various fundamental aspects in order to carry out the tasks of supervising the service. She is trained in PRL, in the implementation of the ISO Standard and also has the auditor accreditation for the same standard. The previous experience of years in basic research allows her to integrate the interest of users with the management of laboratories in her dedication.
All the management of the service facilities is subject to the ISO 9001:2015 Standard. Authorization is available to work with GMOs in part of the facilities.
F-SG-018_2_ed1_Orden de cargo del Servicio de cultivos 03
Last update: 19 de January de 2024
