New research laboratory at Ternopil State Medical University

Competitive biochemical research requires modern equipment. A new laboratory of clinical and experimental research set up at Ternopil State Medical University will help its researchers to take on ambitious molecular and genetics projects, apply for national and international grant programs and develop promising projects for further funding.

One of its units is a cell culture room, equipped with the latest devices – CO2 incubator ICO 150, inverted microscope Delta Optical NIB 100, and laminar flow cabinet. The main purpose of the unit is cell cultivation to model various pathological conditions in vitro, and to develop cell transplantation procedures to patients with different pathologies. Studies using cell and tissue cultures have a number of advantages over animal experiments, in particular:

• They provide reliable, reproducible and unambiguous results that can be extended to the whole body model;
• In-vitro systems are more sensitive to the effects of various adverse factors;
• Once set up, their cost is much lower than the cost of experiments on animals;
• In vitro studies results can often be observed after several hours, while experiments on animals require weeks or months;
• In vitro systems can be used to test multiple drugs at the same time.

Another important unit of the new laboratory is Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) room. This method can be used to detect even a single fragment of foreign DNA. PCR is the most accurate and sensitive method for diagnosing infectious diseases; it is also used for genetic studies. The laboratory is equipped with thermocycler Rotor Gene 6000, which allows to perform Real-time PCR, a process that provides simultaneous amplification and hybridization-fluorescence detection, automated recording and interpretation of the results. Another thermocycler, Perkin Elmer-2400 can be used for DNA amplification and subsequent electrophoresis.

Immunoassay analysis is another molecular method widely used in research and practical. The laboratory is equipped with ELISA analyzer Multiscan FC, which to identify proteins such as hormones, carcinogenesis markers, immunoglobulins, and interferons.

Additional laboratory equipment includes with semi-automatic biochemical analyzer Master T, spectrophotometers Perkin Elmer Lambda 25 and СФ -120, and other tools needed in biomedical research: pH meter MP511 LAB-Intech, automatic homogenizer Silent Crusher S, refrigerated centrifuge Biosan LMC-4200R, microscopes, fume hoods, centrifuges, scales, distillers, pipettes, etc.

Currently, the laboratory is involved research of borreliosis and other infectious diseases transmitted through tick bites, in particular, identification of ticks and PCR-identification of infection with borreliosis, anaplasmosis and erlichiosis. Blood serum from people who have been exposed to tick bites is studied for the presence of antibodies to these pathogens using immunoassays.