The ECB is well equipped with research infrastructure and is based in a modern building in the new Maarjamõisa campus complex at the University of Tartu. This campus also houses the Biomedical Centre, Chemicum, Physicum, and the Translational Medicine Centre. Most of these buildings have been specifically designed to house these facilities and the complex has grown to become the foremost Science and Technology Centre in the Baltic States. Next to the campus block, the state has constructed, renovated, and extended the University Hospital complex.
Core facility for wood chemistry and bioprocessing
The wood chemistry team works with industrial partners to characterize the chemical composition of wood biomass feedstocks, intermediates, and products. For bioprocessing, a lab-scale bioreactor complex consisting of four bioreactors equipped with online monitoring of off-gases, turbidity, pH, dissolved oxygen, and temperature. This bioreactor lab is suitable for in detail and accurate characterization of microbial strains under well-controlled environmental conditions and is equipped with the necessary tools for metabolome, transcriptome, and proteome sampling.
Core facilities for cell technologies
The institute has a core facility dedicated to providing high-level technological support for the cell biology research community, for both academia and industry. The equipment includes a confocal microscope Zeiss LSM710, supplemented with an incubator and CO2 chamber for live cell analysis. The facility offers a wide range of equipment for experimental cell biology including a flow cytometer BD LSRII, cell sorter BD FACSAria, and real-time PCR Applied Biosystems 7900 HT. In addition, the facility provides miscellaneous services such as the preparation of culture media and the generation of cell lines.
Proteomics core facility
The ECB has a proteomics core facility, with a long track-record of providing services for various research labs and biotech companies both in Estonia and abroad. The mass-spectrometry equipment includes both a Thermo Fisher Scientific LTQ Orbitrap XL and Thermo Fisher Scientific Q Exactive. Liquid chromatography can be performed on Agilent 1200 Series nano-LC or Dionex Ultimate3000 RSLC nano-LC. Electrophoresis setups include Agilent 3100 OFFGel and Invitrogen XCell SureLock MiniCell SDS-PAGE.
Core Facility of Genomics
Core Facility of Genomics is dedicated to providing genotyping and sequencing services to researchers, clinicians and others with the state-of-the-art technology of Illumina. In 2006, we started with Illumina BeadArray platform. Today, the core facility is equipped with Illumina’s MiSeq and NextSeq500 for whole genome and targeted sequencing projects, and a iScan for genome-wide genotyping and methylation analyses.