Core Facilities
The CMFI supports five Core Facilities with substantial resources. Equipped with cutting-edge technology and specialist staff, they develop and implement new methods. In doing so, they often take new research directions and thus help to shape the working methods of the disciplines. Employees of the University of Tübingen benefit from the resulting services.
QBiC - Quantitative Biology Center
The Quantitative Biology Center (QBiC) provides access to high-through-put (HT) technologies, such as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) for nucleotide sequencing or mass spectrometry for protein and metabolite analysis. Furthermore, through its integrated concept of opera-tion it complements the service by key expertise in the bioinformatics analysis of the generated data. QBiC also takes care of CMFI data asservation in accordance with a FAIR data management concept.
In addition, the QBiC develops analysis methods and statistic concepts, provides scientific advice, and offers training in bioinformatics and in various high-throughput methods.
NCCT – Next Generation Sequencing Competence Center Tübingen
The NGS Competence Center Tübingen (NCCT)) is composed of three institutes: The Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, which conducts sequenc-ing projects with prokaryotic samples, the Institute of Medical Genetics and Applied Genomics, conducting sequencing projects with a focus on eukaryotic samples, and the QBiC, which is responsible for bringing sequencing data and metadata together via a sustainable infrastructure for data management and bioinformatics support.
The NCCT supports Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) projects within the CMFI with scientific expertise in all relevant aspects: experimental design, sample handling, nucleic acid extraction, (custom) library preparation and the most recent short read and long read sequencing technologies and analysis methods. The NCCT is supported by the CMFI with scientific personnel.
NatResource – Natural Product Resource Center
NatResource, Tübingen’s natural product center, connects natural product isolating research groups (Microbiology, Chemistry, and Pharmacy) with research groups characterizing the bioactive molecules (Biology and Medical Faculty).
Natural product research in Tübingen covers the identification of novel producer strains, compound purification and structure elucidation, analysis of biosynthetic pathways, and characterization of biological activities on the molecular level.
Natural products are a versatile source of bioactive compounds. More than two thirds of all antibiotic classes in therapeutic application are derived from natural products, and natural products are also widely applied in tumor therapy.
Led by
GRCT – Gnotobiotic Research Center Tübingen
The Gnotobiotic Research Center Tübingen (GRCT) provides the infrastructure for in vivo simulations of microbiome-host interactions with defined and standardized microbiome composition. Project-specific personnel and resources of the GRCT are co-funded by the CMFI.
CMFI Clinical Trials Platform
One of our major goals is to fight infections caused by pathogens with decolonizing agents and commensals from the microbiome. The Clinical Trials Platform enables the testing of promising therapeutic methods by conducting controlled colonization experiments in humans. The Clinical Trial Platform was established for malaria vaccine efficacy studies and adapted to the needs of the CMFI.
