Core Facilities

We support research through the provision of excellent core facilities and support services. Common facilities include Cell Culture, Genome Editing, Histology, Image Analysis, and Mouse Experimental core. Core facilities and support services are centrally coordinated by Greg Anderson.

In addition, our research efforts are centrally supported by outstanding in-campus core facilities including the Nikon Imaging Centre, the Centre for Ultrastructural Imaging, and the Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas, with state-of-the-art flow cytometry facilities and bioinformatics core.

Our Centre has pioneered genome editing in zebrafish at King’s. Since 2011, the facility has introduced more that 80 mutations in zebrafish using TALEN-induced homologous recombination in vivo. Since 2016, the newly formed Genome Editing and Embryology Core (GEEC) Facility – now part of Biological Services - provides state-of-the art support for any CRISPR projects, the creation of transgenic animals and [more]

The potential of anatomical and functional imaging strategies to capture information about the developing brain are evident, but quantitative assessment of imaging datasets is not always so obvious. Our Centre has developed in-house software for various applications that extend or complement alternative approaches and software available from the wider brain mapping community.

The Centre has centralised facilities for experimental manipulations in embryonic and postnatal mice, including in utero electroporation, automated stereotaxic injections and ultrasound imaging. In addition, this facility provides a centralised genotyping service for Centre laboratories.

The Centre has separate facilities for different types of cell and tissue cultures, including a dedicated core for cell lines with equipment for the preparation of non-replicative viruses, another for stem cells and two separate areas for primary cultures and organotypic slices.

The facility has the equipment and expertise to produce reliable high-quality sections from fixed and unfixed tissues, frozen and paraffin-embedded tissues. The facility is equipped with three cryostats, a frozen sectioning system, a rotary microtome, and a vibratome.