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Bioimaging – Groningen

Contact Details

University of Groningen

Nijenborgh 7 9747 AG Groningen

Prof. dr. I.J. van der Klei

00 (0)50 363 2179

Hotel Description

BioImaging Groningen is a consortium of research groups within the University of Groningen to facilitate Microscopy research in life sciences.

The research groups involved (Electron Microscopy, Molecular Microscopy, Molecular Biology, Molecular Systems Biology, Molecular Cell Biology, Molecular Genetics, Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology, Cell Biochemistry, Molecular Biotechnology) study a wide variety of topics but overlap/complement each other in many areas and have a strong collective focus on cell (micro)biology. Together these groups form arguably the strongest cell (micro)biology consortium – and are consequently a front runner in single cell bioimaging – in The Netherlands. Additionally, groups with expertise in imaging complex multicellular tissues/organisms (Evolutionary Genetics, Molecular Neurosciences, Behavioural Biology) are also involved in the Groningen Bioimaging consortium greatly expanding the available knowledge and adding specialized, state of the art imaging equipment.

BioImaging Groningen participates in NL-BioImaging AM (http://www.eurobioimaging.nl).
Further information can be found here: www.bioimaging-groningen.nl.

Bioimaging
Public
  • Biomedical & health
  • Agri & Food
  • Industrial biotech
  • Other
  • Facilities for cultivating (micro)organisms (including bioreactors and ML-II facilities)
  • Fluorescence Assisted Cell Sorting (FACS)
  • Microarray facility
  • Mass spectroscopy
  • Electron microscopy
  • Microbiology (fungi, yeast, prokaryotes)
  • Single cell analysis
  • Single molecule analysis
  • Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
  • Molecular Systems Biology

Expertise and Track Record

Advanced light microscopy techniques (e.g. confocal microscopy, time lapse microscopy, super resolution microscopy, FLIM, TCSPC, 2 photon excitation, optical tweezers, microfluidics) are located in close vicinity to labs for wet-lab work. This allows optimal embedding of imaging possibilities with the wet lab work experiments. We can help in designing the experimental set-up and can offer the appropriate facilities for cultivating both prokaryotic and eukaryotic micro-organisms.

See list of references. Bioimaging contributions are stated at the end of the reference. Feel free to collaborate and add references to this list.

Our consortium is also involved in initiatives for the development of fluorescence microscopy equipment (manuscript in preparation).

Many of our in-house performed research combines different technologies to answer biologically relevant questions (see references). Equipment for e.g. electron microscopy, microarray, 2D-gelelectroforesis, mass spectroscopy, and FACS is available and the data generated with these techniques is being combined with bioimaging data.

  • Control of the Diadenylate Cyclase CdaS in Bacillus subtilis: An autoinhibitory domain limits cyclic di-AMP production. Mehne FM, Schröder-Tittmann K, Eijlander RT, Herzberg C, Hewitt L, Kaever V, Lewis RJ, Kuipers OP, Tittmann K, Stülke J. (2014) J Biol Chem. 25;289(30):21098-107. PubMed PMID: 24939848 [Time lapse microscopy]
  • Quaternary Structure of SecA in Solution and Bound to SecYEG Probed at the Single Molecule Level. Kusters, I., van den Bogaart, G., Kedrov, A., Krasnikov, V., Fulyani, F., Poolman, B., Driessen, A.J.M. (2011) Structure 19:430-439. PMID: 21397193 [Dual-color fluorescence-burst analysis (DCFBA) based imaging]
  • Streptococcus pneumoniae PBP2x mid-cell localization requires the C-terminal PASTA domains and is essential for cell shape maintenance. Peters K, Schweizer I, Beilharz K, Stahlmann C, Veening JW, Hakenbeck R, Denapaite D. (2014) Mol Microbiol. 92(4). PMID: 24655324 [Fluorescence microscopy of subcellular structural proteins]
  • Membrane-on-a-Chip: Micro-structured Si/SiO2 Chips for High Throughput Screening of Membrane Transport and Viral Membrane Fusion. Kusters, I., Van Oijen, A., Driessen, A.J.M. (2014) ACS Nano 22: 3380-3392. PMID: 24601516 [High Throughput Screening platform for single molecule detection]
  • The YmdB phosphodiesterase is a global regulator of late adaptive responses in Bacillus subtilis. Diethmaier C, Newman JA, Kovács AT, Kaever V, Herzberg C, Rodrigues C, Boonstra M, Kuipers OP, Lewis RJ, Stülke J. (2014) J Bacteriol. 196(2):265-75. PubMed PMID: 24163345 [Imaging of biofilms]
  • Dual role of mitofilin in mitochondrial membrane organization and protein biogenesis. von der Malsburg K, Müller JM, Bohnert M, Oeljeklaus S, Kwiatkowska P, Becker T, Loniewska-Lwowska A, Wiese S, Rao S, Milenkovic D, Hutu DP, Zerbes RM, Schulze-Specking A, Meyer HE, Martinou JC, Rospert S, Rehling P, Meisinger C, Veenhuis M, Warscheid B, van der Klei IJ, Pfanner N, Chacinska A, van der Laan M. (2011) Dev Cell. 18;21(4):694-707. PMID: 21944719 [Electron microscopy]
  • The localization of key Bacillus subtilis penicillin binding proteins during cell growth is determined by substrate availability. (2013) Lages, M. C. A., Beilharz, K., Morales Angeles, D., Veening, J. W., & Scheffers, D. J. (2013) Environ Microbiol. 15(12), 3272-3281. PMID: 23895585 [Fluorescence microscopy]
  • Balanced transcription of cell division genes in Bacillus subtilis as revealed by single cell analysis. Trip EN, Veening JW, Stewart EJ, Errington J, Scheffers DJ. (2013) Environ Microbiol. 15(12):3196-209. PMID: 23701187 [Time lapse fluorescence microscopy combined with FACS]
  • Elucidating the native architecture of the YidC:ribosome complex. Kedrov, A., Sustarsic, M., de Keyzer, J., Caumanns, J.J., Zht Cheng Wu, Driessen, A.J.M. (2013) J. Mol. Biol. 425: 4112-4124. PMID: 23933010 [FCCS, FRET]
  • Lipid droplet autophagy in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. van Zutphen T, Todde V, de Boer R, Kreim M, Hofbauer HF, Wolinski H, Veenhuis M, van der Klei IJ, Kohlwein SD. (2014) Mol Biol Cell. 25(2):290-301. PMID: 24258026 [Multi-color confocal fluorescence microscopy in combination with EM]

FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil) – NWO (Netherlands) Joint Research Projects Biobased Economy.
PI: Scheffers (Molecular Biology); Project: New environmental-friendly compounds to combat citrus canker. Together with Dr. H. Ferreira (UNESP, Rio Claro, Brazil). Dutch team (PI, postdoc, PhD student) works on characterizing antibacterial activity of compounds that target the plant pathogen Xanthomonas citri.

Be-Basic (Biotechnology based Ecologically Balanced Sustainable Industrial Consortium) which is an international public-private partnership that develops industrial biobased solutions to build a sustainable society. Driessen is flagship leader of programme 2: N-based specialities.

Scheffers and Driessen are PIs participating in the Groningen Bioimaging consortium (www.bioimaging-groningen.nl)

Hotel Characteristics

  • 2 dedicated postdocs
  • 3 dedicated technicians
  • 5 lab managers
  • 2 biostaticians
  • 1 IT-specialist

Incidental external users (e.g. cellular imaging of membrane protein localization for DSM Biotechnology center in the framework of a Be-basic programme). Large internal client output.

  • Various electron microscopes (FEI Tecnai Polara, Philips CM120, Philips CM12); Various epi-fluorescence microscopes (Nikon, Zeiss, Olympus); Nikon Ti-E equipped with two cameras for dual-camera FRET; Home-built combined confocal/wide-field microscope for single-molecule detection, super-resolution imaging, TCSPC, time domain FLIM; DeltaVision ELITE for time lapse (epi-fluorescence) microscopy, photo kinetics, TIRF, superresolution microscopy (PALM/STORM); Various stereomicroscopes e.g. for time-lapse of biofilms (Olympus, Leica, Zeiss); Zeiss LSM510 META-NLO confocor2 (Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope) with 2 photon laser.

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