Laboratory & Facilities 

The Laboratory (approximately 600 square meters in total, with a floor area of approximately 200 square meters - Biosafety Level 2,  BSL-2) is organized into several areas: Biophysics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Spectroscopy, Cell Culture, Electrophoresis, Cell Biology, Microscopy, Electrophysiology, Preparative NGS, NGS Sequencers, and AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy).

The Joint Laboratory's scientific equipment includes:

• Molecular and cellular biology equipment

high- and low-pressure chromatography, protein and nucleic acid electrophoresis and blotting, capillary electrophoresis, digital systems for gel and blot analysis (Chemidoc), a peptide synthesizer, orbital incubators and incubators for cells and bacteria, magnetic stirrers and stirrers, pH meters, refrigerated microcentrifuges, benchtop centrifuges for cells, ultracentrifuges, thermostatic baths, thermocyclers for standard and real-time PCR, vacuum concentrator, tip and bath sonicators, a spotter, -80°C freezer, Qbit, electroporator.

• Characterization equipment

optical spectroscopy (absorbance and fluorescence), fluorescence equipment (brightfield and confocal), SEM and AFM microscopy, infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), dynamic light scattering and zeta potential, electrophysiology setup (patch-clamp and planar lipid bilayer)

• NGS facility

The NGS facilitty includes the MiSeq, Novaseq6000 sequencers from Illumina, and Minion from Oxford Nanopore, and a laboratory for preparing libraries for sequencing. The laboratory is organized into pre- and post-PCR spaces with all the instruments necessary for molecular biology analysis (PerkinElmer NGS express automation, Promega GloMax Microplate Reader, Promega Maxwell Benchtop Automated DNA/RNA Extraction system, Bioruptor NGS sonicator, PerkinElmer LabChip GX Touch, Agilent Fragment Analyzer, Bio-Rad C1000 touch cycler, Bio-Rad CFX Connect real-time system, Pippin Prep gel system, Qubit3.0.) and where diagnostic processes are also performed, subject to medical laboratory accreditation according to the UNI EN ISO 15189 standard