Facilities, Support and Resources at Department of Biology and Chemistry

SwissFEL Biolab

We support serial crystallography experiments at SLS and SwissFEL with sample and injector expertise. Our aim is to help users to make the best out of the available beamtime as we believe a careful preparation is key for a successful experiment.

For more information please follow this link or contact Antonia Furrer.

Electron Microscopy

In LBR there is a state-of-art cryo-EM facility for structural analysis of biological macromolecules and organelles. Cryo-EM provides images of biological macromolecules and organelles in intact hydrated states. Computational image analysis enables three-dimensional reconstruction.

For more information please follow this link or contact Dr. Elisabeth Müller.

Biophysical Instruments

BIO is exceptionally well equipped for biophysics studies. Our biophysical instrumentation includes a number of instruments for characterisation of protein stability, their molecular weight and stoichiometry of proteins complexes, and affinity of biological interactions. These include a qPCR thermal shift instrument, a nanoscale differential scanning fluorimeter (nanoDSF), a circular dichroism (CD) spectrometer, an isothermal titration calorimeter (ITC), a benchtop surface plasmon resonance (SPR) instrument, a microscale thermophoresis (MST), a bench top fluorimeter, absorbance spectrophotometers, multimode plate readers, and a multi angle light scattering instrument (SEC-MALS).

For more information please follow this link (https://intranet.psi.ch/en/bmr/biophysics-bmr) or contact Dr. Ashwani Sharma (ashwani.sharma@psi.ch).

Cellular Imaging

LBR is very well equipped for the imaging of fixed and living eukaryotic cells. Our microscopes are mainly used to monitor subcellular localization of heterologously expressed proteins and to analyze cellular processes.

For more information please follow this link or contact Dr. Philipp Berger.

Crystallography

A distinctive advantage of LBR as a research environment is the presence, on campus, of the Swiss Light Source (SLS). The macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamlines perfectly complement the excellent infrastructure of LBR for protein preparation, crystallization, crystallographic computing and structure analysis. We work in close collaboration with the MX group at the SLS in several areas, especially crystallization, in situ diffraction screening and data acquisition.

For more information follow this link or contact Dr. May Marsh.

Electrophysiological methods and devices

Translocation of ions and charged molecules across biological membranes are sensitively measured using electrophysiological instruments.

For more information please follow this link or contact Dr. Jinghui Luo.

Vocational Training and Chemical Management

The Vocational Training and Chemical Management group has its focus on the following three topics: (i) Vocational training for technicians in chemistry; (ii) PSI wide chemical management; (iii) Laboratory support for the LBR and the LNB.

For more information please follow this link or contact Can Pinarci