Accessing Different Facilities Through SAHAJ

The Institute is now operating from a huge 30-acre green campus with academic blocks, student and faculty housing and guest houses.

Laboratories, equipment (including flow-cell sequencers, whole-genome genotyping and gene expression platforms, multiplex suspension array platform, high-end computing platforms,FACS Aria-FUSION etc.), bio-banking facility, state-of-the-art tissue culture facilities and stem cell laboratory, office space and class rooms have been established.

DNA Sequencing & Real Time PCR

  • Massively parallel sequencing platforms of GS-FLX (Roche-454), HiSeq-2000 & 2500 (Illumina), Ion Proton & Ion Torrent PGM (Life Technologies) for whole genome sequencing, exome sequencing, targeted resequencing, metagenomics, amplicon sequencing, RNA-Seq & small RNA-Seq, ChIP-Seq
  • ABI3500XL Genetic Analyzer (Life Technologies) for Sanger/CE sequencing and fragment analysis
  • ABI7900 HT (Life Technologies) and Lightcycler LC480 (Roche) for high throughput real time PCR
  • 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent) for sequencing library QA/QC

Microarray

  • Complete laboratory set up for processing Illumina bead arrays
  • Bead arrays scanned in iScan (Illumina) and the data analyzed in Genome Studio
  • Genome wide genotyping, gene expression and methylation array analyses

Multiplex Suspension Array

  • Bioplex-200 suspension array platform (Bio-Rad) coupled to automated Bio-Plex ProII wash station
  • System compatible with normal and magnetic beads
  • Immunoassays, receptor-ligand assays, nucleic acid hybridization assays and enzyme assays
  • Can detect up to 100 analytes (cytokines, growth factors etc.) in a single sample

Cell Biology

  • Tissue culture facility covering approximately 300sqft area with separate module of 100sqft "restricted-entry" sterile cell culture area: with all necessary equipment and gadgets needed for the primary culture of human tissues and maintenance of human and animal cell lines, which includes bio-safety cabinets, CO2 incubators, digital water baths, cell counters, fluorescence microscopes (both inverted and regular) with documentation system, liquid nitrogen bio-repositories, freezers, chromatography refrigerators, sonicator-tissue homogenizer with sound abatement chamber and high-speed refrigerated centrifuges.
  • Bacterial culture facility for cloning and expression of recombinant genes: equipped with culture hood, shaker incubator, water bath and high speed centrifuges.
  • Facilities for protein analysis: expression, Western blotting along with both an imaging system and dark room facility.
  • Microscopy/Imaging facilities: for conducting Immunofluorescence assays, Immunocytochemical/Immunohistochemical assays.
  • Cancer Stem Cell Culture and characterization Facility: clean room with biosafety cabinets, CO2 incubators, centrifuge, microscope, refrigerators and deep-freezers; equipped with instrumentations to perform cell based assays as well as cell sorting - MACS based cell sorting as well as fluorescence based cell analysis using microscopy and flow-cytometry; infrastructure for fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) will be available shortly.

Biorepository

The rapidly expanding Biorepository Platform of NIBMG provides centralized storage and preservation of all biospecimens collected from disease-specific and population-based study participants with informed voluntary consent. The preserved samples consist of blood, plasma, serum, tissues, cell scrapes, DNA, RNA and protein extracts. These are stored at temperatures ranging from -86⁰C to 4⁰C, as per requirement, for current and future use by researchers of NIBMG as well as those working in collaboration with the institute.

Biosafety Level 3 Facility

The BSL-3 facility has recently been established at BRIC-NIBMG and is being operated in 24X7 mode. The facility has the following features:

  • This facility is a prefabricated modular structure built over 2000 sq. ft. area, just outside the NIBMG research building.
  • It has one Virus lab, one Bacteria lab and one Animal BSL-3 (ABSL-3) room along with control panel room, ETP treatment plant and autoclave room.
  • The BSL-3 facility has been specifically made to work with pathogenic viruses like SARS-CoV-2 and pathogenic bacteria like Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
  • Since these are highly contagious, so utmost care is being taken like uses of gradient negative pressure in different rooms, HEPA filter, virus burn-out unit, chemical treatment plant etc. to prevent any deleterious effect.
  • Our BSL-3 facility will also be instrumental to investigate emerging pathogenic viruses and bacteria to Combat any future pandemic in India.

Data Analysis and Storage Infrastructure

The high performance computing and centralized data storage services of NIBMG are operated on 24x7 mode from a Data Centre located inside the institute. The facility consists of the following components:

  • 300 TB Grid Scalar Central Data Storage platform (DDN)
  • iCompute high performance system
  • High performance parallel computing Clusters (PSSC Lab)
  • High end servers and Workstations
  • High performance computing cluster
  • 10 GBPS Ethernet network

Computational Genomics Facility

Computational Genomics Data Analysis and Informatics Facility has been created to:

  • Help NIBMG researchers and the broader scientific community to optimally manage genomic data,
  • Efficiently apply state-of-the-art analytical pipelines to convert petabyte scale data to scientifically relevant information, and
  • To make scientific results, analytic tools and pipelines easily accessible to the research community through user-friendly software and web-based frameworks.

The facility is being managed by the following faculty members of NIBMG: Dr Nidhan K. Biswas, Dr Saroj K. Mohapatra, Dr Samsiddhi Bhattacharjee, Dr Analabha Basu.

For further information about the facility, contact cgf@nibmg.ac.in

Computational Labs

NIBMG has specialized computational labs for diverse data analysis requirements of various research activities of the institute. Additionally, special facilities have been established for organizing hands on training courses and workshops on data analysis methods.

Digital Library

The institute has a centrally located Digital Library for accessing online Journals, e-books etc. Access to a large number of high impact scientific journals is provided by the Library through the DBT-Electronic Library Consortium (DeLCON) network.

Zebrafish Facility

The zebrafish is a fresh-water vertebrate that has now become well established as a model for studying vertebrate development, evolution, genetics, and cell biology, due to its small size, high fecundity and transparent embryos. Its amenability for large scale forward genetic screens, morpholino mediated knock-down of gene activity, targeted mutations and knock-in with the CRISPR/Cas9 technology and ease of transgenesis makes it an ideal vertebrate system for experimental investigations. In addition, the zebrafish is significantly more economical to house and breed compared to the mouse and most importantly, its genome is fully sequenced and highly like mammalian and human genomes. This makes the zebrafish a versatile vertebrate for the systematic modeling human diseases that range from metabolic and infectious diseases to cancer and rare Mendelian disorders.

In NIBMG, we have established a zebrafish facility that primarily intends to utilize existing expertise within our institution in disease modelling, bioinformatics, zebrafish assay development and mechanistic studies. These studies will set the stage for investigating gene networks elemental in prevailing human disease phenotypes at a functional level, and create high-throughput biology in the zebrafish as a platform to complement genome-wide association studies (GWAS) across a wide spectrum of traits. Most importantly, this approach can instantly be implemented to drug response phenotypes and novel traits as they originate. Human genomic research has already detected a substantial number of loci associated with numerous common complex human diseases and have surpassed conventional experimental methodologies for understanding intrinsic disease mechanisms. Nowadays, multiple studies worldwide have established the benefit of the zebrafish model system in investigating functionally relevant genes at GWAS loci, and in comprehending the molecular mechanisms by which these genes influence human traits. The NIBMG zebrafish facility, therefore, provides support to researchers with broader classes of genomic variations. The major function of this resource includes confirming the functionality of genes and regulatory elements underlying human disease biology with high efficiency and generation of relevant animal models that uphold in-depth studies of disease mechanisms or potential drug discovery.

Proteomics Facility-NIBMG

Proteomics facility Equipment:
QExactive Plus Mass spectrometer.
Ultimate3000 RSLC nano system.

Flow-cytometry and Cell Sorting Facility at NIBMG

Instrument Laser Detectors Service
BD FACS Aria Fusion UV/Violet, Blue, Red, Yellow 2 UV, 6 Violet, 3 Blue, 4 Yellow/Green, 2 Red Assisted Sorter
BD Accuri SORP Near UV, Blue 4 detectors Non-assisted Analyzer

Live Cells-Confocal Imaging Facility-NIBMG

A1RHD (Multi Photon Ready), Nikon

Scanner: Resonant scanning head

Frame Rate: Up to 30 frame per second at 512x512 resolution

Detector: 2 PMT and 2 GaAsP detectors

Applications: High speed, time-lapse live cell confocal imaging

Live Cells-Confocal Imaging Facility-NIBMG