Joint research infrastructures
Core facilities are autonomous units within the VUB that have highly qualified personnel and specialized equipment and make it available to the research community at economic prices. Infrastructure platforms, on the other hand, open up research facilities such as instruments to the entire VUB research community.
VUB supported these core facilities with no less than 23 million EUR. From statistical-methodological support over microscopy and cellsorters to a cleanroom for microfluidics and much more - researchers can find it all in our core facilities.
We can be proud of our research at the VUB, and the use of shared infrastructure will further strengthen our research.
An overview of all core facilities can be found below.
Brubotics
The Brubotics Rehabilitation Research Center (BRRC) is a state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary human movement analysis lab (including 14 Vicon mocap cameras, 3 build-in AMTI force plates, a 16-channel Cometa EMG device and a MetaMax 3B gas analysis system) focusing on robotic and technology-supported rehabilitation research.
In Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging
The In Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging (ICMI) Core Facility is specialized in nuclear and optical imaging of small animals. The lab is equipped with a myriad of multi-modality cameras and ex vivo analysis techniques to study tracer biodistribution, pharmacokinetics, dosimetry, and therapeutic efficacy of radiopharmaceuticals. The lab is situated in a biosafety level 2 environment with direct access to the Animalarium.
FlowCore
Flow Cytometry Core Facility (FlowCore) has a variety of Flow Cytometry instruments of which users can be trained to use these instruments correctly to analyse and/or sort biological materials.
Materials Characterisation
The Materials Characterisation facility provides a collection of analytical tools, that makes the characterization possible of all types of materials. These techniques provide insights from the macro- to the nanoscale, focusing on bulk and individual phases as well as surface properties and compositional mapping at high-resolution.
Microlab
MICROLAB is a 300 m² class 100 cleanroom dedicated to advanced microfabrication of glass and silicon for microfluidics. It is an open access facility supporting both the research community and industry in the development of microfluidic devices for medical, pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications.
Support for Quantitative and Qualitative Research
SQUARE provides complementary support in statistics and methodology (both qualitative and quantitative) to our research community, for both individual researchers and research groups, in order to get the best out of their research. SQUARE aims to further enhance the quality of both the research and how it is communicated.
Animalarium
The Animalarium oversees the housing, care and management of animals used in research.
Visual and Spatial Tissue Analysis
The VSTA core facility offers in situ detection of DNA aberrations, multiplex RNA expression, point mutations (DNA/RNA/Basescope) and multiplex protein expression (immunostaining, Ultivue) with whole-slide imaging (brightfield/fluorescence) and advanced digital image analysis.
Belgian Online Probability Panel
The Belgian Online Probability Panel (BOPP) is an advanced data infrastructure co-owned by all Belgian universities and intended to boost and integrate interdisciplinary research in behavioral and social sciences. The panel consists of 4,000 randomly selected Belgian citizens. BOPP fields a yearly core questionnaire to collect basic information (e.g., economic situation, household composition, work, social and political attitudes, health) on all panelists. For the remaining questionnaire, researchers from all fields can apply to field their surveys. The infrastructure generates new opportunities for longitudinal analyses, interdisciplinary research, experimental research designs and linking collected data to administrative and context data.