Laboratory of molecular biology in Heidelberg

Christian Boulin, researcher at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), and his team are working on a new facility called the Advanced Light Microscopy Facility. This is a collection of state-of-the-art microscopes provided by industry. The interest of the these companies is that advanced basic research at EMBL will find new ways to use these instruments in collaboration with scientists working on important projects. Wilhelm Ansorge, researcher at the EMBL, and his team are working on DNA's sequencing machines, used to analyze the senquences of DNA samples, such as material from the Human Genome Project. Its lab has been very active in innovative technology that improves the speed and efficiency of sequencing DNA. They are working also with "microarray-spotting" machines, this machine makes "DNA chips" by chemically mounting molecular probes on chips. The chips can be used to analyze the genetic activity of cells - for example, how cells respond to an infection by activating different sets of genes. On the computers screen of Wilhelm Ansorge, you have software designed to analyze the results of DNA chip experiments. Probes on the chips show when a gene is active in the cells used to make a sample. A lasr is used to scan the probes and determine whether the probe has "detected" that RNA has been produced from a specific gene. Software is needed to analyze and graphically display the results from the chip experiments, In another lab (microinjection facility) scientist inject molecules such as RNA into cells to see how this will affect the cell's behaviour.

European Commission | July 27, 2000

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