Policy

The Molecular Biology Service is an open lab where members of the institutes IMP, IMBA and GMI can use most of the lab equipment after a proper introduction. After the introduction you can use the devices at any time. Note, some of the devices are bookable through the Booking System (http://grm3.imp.univie.ac.at/). Users are responsible for leaving the workstations clean and in working order. In case we observe constant misuse or not properly cleaned devices, we will make restrictions on use of the equipment. In case you encounter any problems please report them to us.

The Molecular Biology Service offers different automated liquid handling systems to the scientists of IMP, IMBA and GMI.

After an introduction on the systems, users are allowed to use the robots to pipette their experiments like:

• PCR set up
• Real Time PCR
• Nucleic Acid Purification
• High Through Put In Situ Hybridizations

We together with new users program new automated workflows.

As a routine service we offer automated DNA extraction (Plasmid and genomic DNA) and  RNA Extraction.

The custom made array printer is used to spot microarrays using clones from our RIKEN III clone repository.

The Molecular Bilogy Service uses self spotted mouse microarrays or microarrays from Agilent. 

Initial Meeting: Before we start a microarray experiment it is necessary to meet and discuss following items:Minimal Information about a Microarray Experiment (MIAME), experimental design and addressed questions. Download: MIAME 

The actual Experiment is done by Harald or Martin. We start the experiment after we confirmed the quality using the Bionanalyzer from Agilent. We introduced several quality control checkpoints in our experimental work flow. This enables us to stop an experiment before we hybridize them onto the arrays.

• Analysis and Closing Meeting:

The scientist is given an Access database containing all result tables of interest. These primary results can be further analyzed e.g. on the workstation with Spotfire Decision Site data analysis. 

The Sanger Sequencing Facility has 2 DNA sequencers, the ABI 3730xl (96 capillaries)and the ABI 3730 (48 capillaries) DNA Analyzer. These instruments are capillary based, use Bid Dye chemistry and run on Data Collection software. 

Sample Submission Guidelines

Bring samples and sample request sheet to room 4.48 at the ground floor in the IMBA building and put them in the small glass door refrigerator on the left side. Samples put into racks labeled as “SAMPLES”, primers put into racks labeled as “PRIMERS”.  Some primers are in the Facility (list of primers)

Sample guidelines:

• 150 ng for plasmid DNA per reaction
• 20 – 50 ng for PCR products per reaction
• 500 – 1000 ng for cosmid, BACs and YACs per reaction