Biology Sciences
Biological research at IISER Pune covers a large spectrum of Biology and necessitates the availability of a wide range of instrumentation and specialist infrastructure. Generous support from IISER Pune and extramural funding agencies have allowed us to develop high quality research infrastructure and facilities in a relatively short time.
Please visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8P0w4EVpLs to see the laboratory facilities.
The biology infrastructure includes spacious research and training laboratories, computational resources, greenhouses, experimental field plots, an outsourced animal house and several other facilities. Institutionally, we have access to a range of spectroscopy techniques, a micro-/nano-fabrication suite, a proteomics and mass spectroscopy unit and workshop facilities. While we will be shifting to a custom-designed research building in a year’s time, the current facilities have been created to impart training and undertake research of the highest quality.
Open laboratories are a key feature of our organizational philosophy. Apart from efficient utilization of resources, this creates a border-free intellectual environment – a critical requisite of contemporary Biology. Key facilities have been developed as autonomous units and are maintained and administered by technical staff and associated faculty. The facilities provide basic training for new users, specialized technical support to advanced users and are responsible for maintenance and upgradation.
Fly Facility
All fly pushing related needs, including preparation of media, organization of common fly rooms, waste disposal and ordering of fly stocks is centrally managed by the facility. The stock centre maintains a large collection of fly stocks, both locally generated and from public collections.
Animal Cell and Tissue Culture Cluster
Positive pressure, filtered air clean areas cater to our tissue culture needs that include cell lines, primary cultures and viral work. Training in handling animal cells in culture and maintenance of related infrastructure and reagents is managed by the group. Common media is centrally prepared and distributed leading to a significant reduction in expenditure and batch to batch variability.
Plant Biology Facilities
A plant tissue culture suite and transformation facility is available with the necessary equipment to grow plants in vitro. Multi-tiered culture rooms, growth incubators and plant growth chambers with programmable modular light banks for plant growth in controlled conditions are available. A research greenhouse with modular temperature and light control has been developed along with an experimental plot for field trial purposes.
Imaging Centre
This is an operator-free facility providing training and maintaining our extensive microscopy resources. Multiple confocals, a two-photon confocal, a SEM, live cell imaging and microinjection stations, a TIRF system and stereomicroscopes are managed by this facility. This apart we have access to biological AFM, FE-SEM and Raman spectroscopy.
Please visit https://www.iiserpune.co.in/ for more information.
Computing Resources
Management and maintenance of high-performance research computing clusters, networked storage servers, centralized access to key commercial softwares and other computational requirements are coordinated by this group.
Library and e-journals
The library provides access to a large collection of journals, collections, books, databases and an internal digital repository.
Structural Biology Core Facility
This facility includes a macromolecular crystal data collection system and a crystallisation robot. The data collection system, consisting of a Rigaku MicroMax-007HF X-ray generator, VariMax optics, Marresearch dtb345 detector and Oxford cryosystem, facilitates in-house crystal screening and data collection. TTP Mosquito liquid handling robot automates extensive screening for potential crystallisation conditions.
Histology Core Facility
Plant and animal tissue processing facility includes, microtomes, cryotomes, vibratomes, ovens, hot and cold plates and a sophisticated laser capture microdissection system.
Animal House
While our in-campus animal house is being constructed, we have access to a rented animal facility. The facility includes, regular animal maintenance and procedural rooms, a barrier facility with IVC units, setup for stereotaxic manipulations and a behaviour analysis facility with a several behavioural apparatus and videotracking systems.