The core facilities

In february 2007 the following 8 core facilities were settled:

• Biochemistry and analytical proteomics;
• Crystallography;
• Protein biophysics;
• Production of recombinant proteins;
• Cellular biology;
• Molecular biology;
• An SPF animal facility for transgenic animals and
• Bio-informatics.

A total budget of approximately 5.000.000 USD was provided to buy sophisticated and up to date equipments. The following technologies are presently available for the academic and the industrial communities in the core facilities: microcalorimetry, plasmonic resonance spectrometry (BIAcore), mass spectrometry (Maldi, Maldi TOT-TOF and Qtrap technology), production of recombinant proteins by using prokaryotic and different eukaryotic technologies, crystalogenesis and Rx diffraction, analytical and cell sorting flow cytometry facilities, confocal microscopy, analytical and real time PCR, DNA sequencing, a micro-array facility and an SPR animal facility able to produce transgenic animals. An important number of these technologies were not available in Uruguay and some of them in the region. This has determined that the IP Montevideo core facilities are presently perceived as reference centers in many domains at the national and regional level.

These core facilities are managed by 11 principal investigators and 18 technical assistants. In addition, 12 young scientists receive financial support through grants obtained by the core facilities and 8 receive financial support from other institutions.

These core facilities constitute one of the distinctive elements of the IP Montevideo. The rationale for their creation was related to the fact that Uruguay was behind the times in terms of equipment, due to very low investments devoted for a long period to this area. Thus, the IP Montevideo is presently able to offer to the academic and industrial community a set of up to date technologies that should enable them to tackle the new challenges of modern biology.