Forschungsinfrastruktur

Vienna Biocenter Core Facilities GmbH (VBCF)

Wien | Website

Short Description

The Plant Sciences Facility (PlantS) operates 22 high quality state-of-the-art and highly specialized plant growth chambers and provides professional support to research groups at the VBC. Within spare capacities all services are also available for external customers.

Several chambers are capable of providing exceptional environmental conditions i.e. low temperature (frost), high temperature, different light intensities, different light spectra and different gas conditions allowing precise environmental simulation across different climate zones and the simulation of various environmental stress conditions. Additionally, one of our chambers is equipped with a robotic plant phenotyping system.

Contact Person

Jakub Jez

Research Services

Basic plant growth:

All growth chambers provide standard plant growth conditions with minor deviations from the set points, independent of external environmental influencing parameters. Temperature, humidity, light and water supply are computer controlled, fully automated and corresponding parameters are continuously graphed and documented.

High throughput screening:

For the objective, reproducible and high-throughput investigation of morphological phenotypes, PlantS operates an automated, chamber integrated, non-destructive plant phenotyping system:
- visible light sensor
- chamber integrated system (low temp. chamber)
- capacity: 1260 plants/pots
- image analysis parameters inter alia:
Leaf surface area, hull area, hull perimeter, distance center hull – centers leaves, count of leaves

Environmental simulation:

Several chambers are capable of providing exceptional environmental conditions like
- low temperature (≥ -15°C)
- high temperature (≤ +50°C)
- variable light intensities & light spectra (LED-light: UV-/blue-/white- & red-light)
- variable gas atmosphere conditions (e.g. CO2)

allowing precise environmental simulation across different climate zones.

Plant-based protein production:

We offer more than six years of experience in small- and large-scale purification of plant-derived proteins. Downstream processing focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on antibodies and antibody fragments and is accomplished through a close collaboration with the CSF Protein Technologies Facility (ProTech).

Methods & Expertise for Research Infrastructure

Basic plant growth:

All growth chambers provide standard plant growth conditions with minor deviations from the set points, independent of external environmental influencing parameters. Temperature, humidity, light and water supply are computer controlled, fully automated and corresponding parameters are continuously graphed and documented.

High throughput screening:

For the objective, reproducible and high-throughput investigation of morphological phenotypes, PlantS operates an automated, chamber integrated, non-destructive plant phenotyping system:
- visible light sensor
- chamber integrated system (low temp. chamber)
- capacity: 1260 plants/pots
- image analysis parameters inter alia:
Leaf surface area, hull area, hull perimeter, distance center hull – centers leaves, count of leaves

Environmental simulation:

Several chambers are capable of providing exceptional environmental conditions like
- low temperature (≥ -15°C)
- high temperature (≤ +50°C)
- variable light intensities & light spectra (LED-light: UV-/blue-/white- & red-light)
- variable gas atmosphere conditions (e.g. CO2)

allowing precise environmental simulation across different climate zones.

Plant-based protein production:

We offer more than six years of experience in small- and large-scale purification of plant-derived proteins. Downstream processing focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on antibodies and antibody fragments and is accomplished through a close collaboration with the CSF Protein Technologies Facility (ProTech).

Equipment

• Plant Growth Chambers & High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping Platform