Cell – Embryo Culture – Engineering

One L3 cell culture room employed for the production and the concentration of recombinant retroviruses or lentiviruses. This L3 facility is also used for the infection of cells or tissues with recombinant retroviral or lentiviral vectors, with commercialized Sendaï viruses, or with Zyka viral isolates from patients. His access is secured and restricted to persons having the appropriate training, a medical authorization, and a scientific requirement verified and approved by the national committee on experimentation using genetically modified organisms. Moreover, compulsory and standard operating procedures and protocols ensure the experimenter security. This L3 laboratory possesses one PSM type III, one ultracentrifuge for the concentration of viruses, one CO2 incubator, one low-speed centrifuge, one -80°C freezer for virus cryoconservation and one double-entry steam autoclave.

Four cell culture rooms dedicated to the culture of pluripotent stem cells from avian (L1), mouse (L2), rabbit (L2), and human and non-human primates (L2). Each culture room is fully equipped with two to four PSM type II, two to four CO2 incubators, one low-speed centrifuge, two 3-gaze incubators, one cell-electroporator, and two inverted microscopes. Their access are also secured and restricted to persons having the relevant skills and using pluripotent stem cells of the appropriate species. Standard operating procedures regulate the utilization of theses culture rooms.

One L2 cell culture room reserved for the culture of neural tissue explants and for the primary culture of neural stem cells from mice or non-human primates. This room contains two PSM type II, two CO2 incubators, one low-speed centrifuge, one inverted microscope, one binocular stereoscopic microscope, one tissue electroporator, two tissue-choppers and one vibratome. Once again, his access is secured and restricted to persons having the appropriate skills and working with primary culture or tissue explants. Usual operating procedures certify the safety of experimenter using non-human tissues.

One L2 embryo culture room used for recovering, manipulation and culture of rabbit, mouse or monkey embryos. This room encloses two CO2 incubators, one 3-gaze incubator, two binocular stereoscopic microscopes, and two micromanipulators. These micromanipulators are dedicated to the microinjection of spermatozoids into oocytes (ICSI), or to the microinjection of pluripotent stem cells or viruses into embryos. Due to the high fragility of pre-implantation embryos, this room is exclusively reserved to their culture, in order to avoid any external perturbation, and to safeguard their in vitro development. His access is limited to the only persons useful for the experiments.