Facilities

Research in the Hubrecht Institute is supported by a state-of-the-art research infrastructure, enabling our scientists to achieve high goals. The facilities are supported with skilled lab technicians and are refined in-house to suit the researchers’ needs.

Hubrecht Imaging Center

Imaging is an important research technique at the Hubrecht Institute. In order to facilitate the fast-growing demand on imaging tools, in 2009 the ‘Hubrecht Imaging Center (HIC)’ was founded.

Imaging at the HIC ranges from simple phase-contrast imaging of cells to high-resolution imaging of living tissue. Multiple advanced systems are available at the HIC, such as: confocal, two-photon, spinning disk and lightsheet microscopes. The HIC keeps up-to-date with the latest developments in microscopy and regularly new advanced systems are acquired.

Single-cell analysis

Single-cell analysis examines the sequence information from individual cells.

Each typical human cell contains about 6 billion base pairs of DNA, known as the genome. This genome is expressed differently in each human cell. Different levels of gene expression give each cell its specific characteristics and function through the production of different proteins. The expression of genes can be measured by analyzing the RNA, molecules that are transcribed from the DNA and convey genetic information to the ribosome. This is where protein production takes place.

Flow Cytometry

The Flow Cytometry Core facility offers state of the art instrumentation for routine flow cytometry and cell sorting. The facility is continuously expanding with the newest software and machinery for both sort and analysis capabilities of up to 18 fluorescent parameters, and is committed to meet all of the flow cytometry needs for the Hubrecht Institute, the UMC Utrecht and the Princess Máxima Center.

Animal Facility

The Hubrecht Institute has its own animal facility that is home to nematodes (Caenorhabditis elegans), fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), zebrafish (Danio rerio), frogs (Xenopus laevis) and rodent species such as mice, spiny mice and rats.

Where possible, we replace our animal experiments with in vitro models, such as organoids, reducing the number of laboratory animals. The scientific models that do not allow for full replacement are constantly refined and reduced to keep the number of animal experiments to a minimum. All of our experiments are subject to common Dutch regulation.

Additionally, The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), which the Hubrecht Institute is part of, has signed the Dutch Transparency Agreement on Animal Testing. More information about the Agreement can be found here.

 

Utrecht Life Sciences 

In addition to the facilities the Hubrecht Institute has in its own building, Utrecht Life Sciences provides more than 50 shared facilities. These can be used by all researchers that work there. An overview of all available facilities on the Utrecht Science Park is offered on the website of Utrecht Life Sciences.