AI/ML KNOWLEDGE BASE

Artificial intelligence/Machine learning (AI/ML) knowledge base

To learn more, visit the Artificial intelligence/Machine learning (AI/ML) knowledge base website

BACTERIA LAB & RETROVIRAL PRODUCTION 

BACTERIA LAB
In this lab bacteria are grown to produce DNA, which we use in further experiments such as viral vector production.

RETROVIRAL VECTOR PRODUCTION
This platform is used to produce viral vectors for gene transfer, both in vivo and in vitro. The vectors produced here are onco-retroviral and lentiviral vectors.  The vectors can be produced at very high titers and used directly for in vivo injections. The vectors are also used for in vivo modifications of cells, e.g. for reprogramming.

To learn more, visit the Bacteria Lab & Retroviral Production website

BEHAVIORAL PLATFORM

The behavioral platform offers setups for motor and cognitive testing. It consists of multiple laboratories and equipment to do complete batteries of motor and cognitive tests.
The platform offers diversified arrays of behavioral tests in an environment that is very close to other state-of-the-art laboratory facilities.

To learn more, visit the Behavioral Platform website

BIOBANK PLATFORM

MultiPark's biobank sample collection is a resource that serve three major research areas: Biomarkers, Epidemiology and Genetics. Patients with confirmed idiopathic PD diagnosis living in the region of Skåne are invited to participate. There are approximately 2-3000 PD patients in the region of Skåne, whereof almost 1000 patients are connected to the Lund/Malmö Neurology clinics. 

To learn more, visit the Bíobank Platform website

CELL AND GENE THERAPY CORE

As of first of January 2022, StemTherapy and MultiPark have decided to merge the former iPSC, CRISPR and vector platforms into the new Cell and Gene Therapy Core. 

The Cell and Gene Therapy core is an open-access infrastructure and our services include AAV and LV vector production, cloning services, iPS reprogramming, iPS-edits and CRISPR experimental designs. The core is open to members of MultiPark as well as the SCC, and national and international users. 

To learn more, visit the Cell and Gene Therapy Core website

CELLOMICS HIGH CONTENT SCREENING/ANALYSIS

MultiPark has made a substantial investment in a High Content Screening machine. The state-of-the-art apparatus offers a high throughput system for screening at sub-cellular level. The Cellomics Arrayscan VTI instrument is an imaging tool that will help our scientists make quicker and more precise analyses, capturing, for instance, changes in cell size, shape and intensity. The Cellomics machine allows you to not only image live cells, but to keep those cells alive for both short- and long-term experiments in a controlled environment similar to that of a tissue culture incubator. The machine offers complete environmental control with full reporting of CO2 and temperature over the defined time course allowing for complete life measurements.

To learn more, visit the Cellomics High Content Screening/Analysiswebsite

CLINICAL BIOINFORMATICS INFRASTRUCTURE

MultiPark supports a bioinformatician who works with bioinformatic analyses of genetic data from high throughput genetic sequencing (NGS) from patients and families with Parkinson disease, dementia, other movement disorders and cerebrovascular disorders. Tasks/expertise include the identification of disease-associated genetic variants in families and in case series and comparison with international genetic databases. Sequence alterations, copy number variants and short tandem repeats in human DNA can be detected.

To learn more, visit the Clinical Bioinformatics Infrastructure website

CLINICAL PARKINSON RESEARCH PLATFORM

Clinical Parkinson Research Platform facilitates clinical research projects related to Parkinson’s disease and related movement disorders at Lund University and Skåne University hospital. The research platform consists of research coordinators, trained research nurses and medical doctors. The platform is well equipped concerning know-how and equipment for clinical and translational research related to Parkinson’s disease and related movement disorders (commercial as well as non-commercial studies). 

To learn more, visit the Clinical Parkinson Research Platform webpage

CONFOCAL MICROSCOPE PLATFORM

The MultiPark confocal microscope platform has a Leica SP8 laser scanning confocal microscope available for imaging of live and fixed tissue and cells. The microscope is inverted and include a motorized stage and two detectors (a standard PMT detector and a Leica hybrid detector), allowing for two-channel confocal scanning with spectral detection. The system is located in A10. The system has 2 LED lasers with the laser lines 405, 488, 552 and 638 nm, and is equipped with an Okolab stage-top chamber system for live-imaging. 

To learn more, visit the Confocal Microscope Platform website

ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY CORE FACILITY

Welcome to the joint MultiPark and StemTherapy Electrophysiology Core Facility!

The facility is designed to provide researchers with high-quality core electrophysiology techniques and expert knowledge to investigate cells and tissues that exhibit electrical properties. The goal of the facility is to ensure that investigators at Lund University have access to top-notch electrophysiology expertise and resources. The facility hosts state-of-the-art equipment that can be used for standard and tailored electrophysiological services depending on the needs of the investigator. There are two platforms in the facility, both within BMC – MultiPark’s set-up, located at F09, and Stem Therapy’s set-up, located inside the cell culture lab on B10. 

To learn more, visit the Electrophysiology Core Facility website

FACS PLATFORM

The MultiPark FACSAria III is used to study and purify cells. FACS technology has a wide application in immunology, cell biology and other fields of biology. The method suspends cells in a stream of fluid and passes them through electronic detection. It allows simultaneous multiparametric analysis of the physical and chemical characteristics of up to thousands of particles per second. The FACSAria III opens the complex world of cell sorting to a wider audience of researchers through a broader range of applications. The easy-to-use flow cytometer helps ensure that lasers are precisely focused on the sample stream, that they generate the greatest signal, and that the maximum amount of emitted light is collected. The machinery also comes with the ability to run complex multicolor experiments using up to six lasers.

To learn more, visit the FACS Platform website

IMAGE VISUALIZATION AND ANALYSIS SOFTWARE

Imaris for Neuroscientists version 9.3 is available on a dedicated workstation in BMC Room B1155a. This package is optimized for tracing neurons but can work with other cells types or structures that branch or are filamentous in nature. In addition, users may use this package to detect and measure spots and surfaces and perform colocalization anaylsis. This version of Imaris has been improved over previous versions to better handle large datasets.

In collaboration with CIPA, MultiPark users also have access to the Arivis suite.

To learn more, visit the Image Visualization and Analysis software webpage

LIGT SHEET MICROSCOPE

To learn more, visit the Light Sheet  Microscope website

LIVE CELL IMAGING PLATFORM

The live cell imaging technology platform is an important tool for studying molecular and cellular function of neuronal and non-neuronal cells and tissues. It has a broad range of applications such as exploring disease mechanisms, performing clinical diagnosis and developing new treatments. This system gives MultiPark scientists an opportunity to study single molecule dynamics in high resolution, and also allows for keeping long-term track of cell migration and cell differentiation. Because the technology is so advanced, so high speed and offers such high resolution it provides researchers with the tools to study these processes more closely than before.

To learn more, visit the Live Cell Imaging Platform website

MEMORY CLINIC PLATFORM

The Memory clinic platform facilitates research projects run by clinical researchers performing studies on dementia disorders. The clinical platform consists of trained research nurses, medical doctors and administrators, who performs in-depth assessments of neurological, cognitive and psychiatric functions of study participants. Further, samples of blood and cerebrospinal fluid are often collected. Data is collected and stored according to the GDPR and Swedish legislation and the rules of Region Skåne. 

To learn more, visit the Memory Clinic Platform website

MESO QuickPlex

MESO QuickPlex SQ 120 instrument allows for precise quantitation of single or multiple low abundance analytes in a single sample. Compared to ELISA, the MULTI-ARRAY technology has increased dynamic range, improved sensitivity, reduced sample volume and reagent requirements. There is a wide menu of available assay kits compatible with the MESO QuickPlex, and a full line of components and reagents for developing your own assay. Several hundreds of immunoassays for a range of applications including immunology, inflammation, oncology, neurobiology, and toxicology, in various assay formats are available.

To learn more, visit the MESO QuickPlex website

NEUROIMAGING PLATFORM

The Neuroimaging platform facilitates research projects in humans using CT, MRI and PET-CT at state of the art equipment including top-end digital PET scanners, 3T MRI and the national 7T MRI (LBIC).

To learn more, visit the Neuroimaging Platform webpage

NEXT GENERATION SEQUENCING (NGS)

The MultiPark next generation sequencing (NGS) facility is located at the BMC in Lund. The core offers state-of-the art next generation sequencing technology for experimental and preclinical studies with particular expertise in transcriptome analysis. It is a core facility providing you with a full service – from RNA isolation to initial bioinformatics analysis.

The facility is open to all MultiPark researchers, Lund University affiliates and external users.

To learn more, visit the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) website

NGS DATABASE INFRASTRUCTURE

MultiPark supports New generation sequencing (NGS) of larger number of patients and families with Parkinson disease and frontotemporal dementia. Patients are clinically well-characterized from existing clinical research protocols within MultiPark Biobank Collection, Clinical neurogenetics research group, or Memory Clinics in Malmö and Ängelholm, and do not have a known monogenetic cause of their disorder.

By the first half of 2023, the infrastructure hopes to have compiled whole exome sequencing data from 300 Parkinson patients and whole genome sequencing data from at least 20 patients with hereditary forms of frontotemporal dementia. To encourage MultiPark research on genetic causes of these neurodegenerative disorders, sequencing information will be compiled in a de-identified way on group level and made accessible to the MultiPark community.

To learn more, visit the NGS database infrastructure website
or the MultiPark Biobank Collection website. 

OPERETTA CLS

MultiPark has made a substantial investment in  the Operetta CLS, a High Content Screening machine. The Operetta enables automated acquisition, visualization and quantification of a large number of images. We have the competence and available time to help you get more data out of your images. 

To learn more, visit the Operetta CLS website

PET LIGAND RADIOSYNTHESIS PLATFORM

PET imaging of the brain is a powerful method to study physiology and disease in the living brain of humans as well as animal models. The unit for nuclear medicin at Skåne University Hospital provides radioligands for both experimental and clinical use. Besides 18F-FDG, they also synthesize a range of other PET tracers such as ligands binding to the dopamine transporter, tau filaments or β-amyloid aggregates. The facility is open to all researchers at Lund University, and the prices for production of already established ligands are subsidised for all MulltiPark researchers. Further, state-of-the-art PET scanners for human use are available at the unit for clinial physiology at Skåne University Hospital, and a PET scanner for small animal models at the Lund University Bioimaging Center. 

To learn more, visit the PET ligand radiosynthesis platform website

PLATE RUNNER PLATFORM

MultiPark has acquired the Trophos Plate Runner HD, the fastest fluorescence full well/full plate imager for 96/384 plates on the market, ideal for cellular or small organisms imaging. It will perform in a few minutes at most, at up to five different fluorescence channels simultaneously, and at various one-click user-defined resolution. This device is very simple to learn, to use, to train, and require only a few settings to start up, and almost no maintenance. Thanks to its various original features, it is notably more suited and faster than standard microscopes for fluorescence imaging at cellular or small organisms level.

To learn more, visit the Plate Runner Platform website

SAPPHIRE IMAGER

MultiPark has acquired a Sapphire imager and a dedicated license for Sapphire imaging data analysis.

Equipment features: Laser scanning systems, the Sapphire Biomolecular Imager, which delivers the following imaging modalities with higher sensitivity (protein detection in the femtogram range):

• Bright-field and Multiplex fluorescent detection
• Chemiluminescent imaging

Sapphire Biomolecular Imager has four solid-state lasers (488, 520, 658, and 784 nm), offering excitation sensitivity at the image resolution down to 10 micrometers.

The imager is equipped with a photomultiplier tube for fluorescence and phosphor imaging, avalanche photodiodes for near-infrared imaging, and a CCD sensor for chemiluminescent and visible imaging.

In addition, users may use this software Sapphire imaging data to perform fluorescent signal quantification.

To learn more, visit the Sapphire Imager website

SIMOA ANALYZER

Quanterix SR-X Ultra-Sensitive Biomarker Detection System
The Simoa is particularly useful for measurements of biomarkers at ultra-low levels. The approach is based on the counting of thousands of single immunocomplexes in femtoliter-sized reaction chambers which are termed Simoa - Single Molecule Arrays.  Simoa uses the same reagents as conventional ELISA, but antibody capture agents are attached to the surface of paramagnetic beads that are used to concentrate a dilute solution of target molecules. The beads are loaded to discs containing arrays of femtoliter-sized wells that hold only one bead per well. In wells containing a bead with a single target molecule, the formation of an immunocomplex will result in enzymatic cleavage of a substrate, which will be converted to a fluorescent product imaged by the SR-X reader.

To learn more, visit the Simoa website

STATISTICAL SUPPORT

MultiPark and Clinical Studies Sweden – Forum South, Medical Statistics and Epidemiology Unit have entered into an agreement for ongoing project support. Scientists linked to MultiPark can now turn to Medical Statistics and Epidemiology Unit for help with study design, randomization, selection of appropriate statistical analysis, implementation of analysis, reporting and interpretation of results as well as statistical reviews of manuscripts.

Going forward the Medical Statistics and Epidemiology Unit will belong to a newly formed cooperative organization for the University health care in Skåne and the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University. They are working to provide training and support in epidemiology, biostatistics and data management to researchers throughout the southern healthcare region. The support ranges from short consultations to more extensive participation in the implementation of longer projects.

Helene Jacobsson at Medical Statistics and Epidemiology Unit is responsible for contacts with MultiPark. Helene Jacobsson and other employees at Medical Statistics and Epidemiology Unit will together be able to spend time equivalent to 30% of a full-time service relating to MultiPark inquiries. 

For information on statistical support, please contact Helene Jacobsson. Please state that you belong to MultiPark at the first contact.
Email: Helene [dot] Jacobsson [at] skane [dot] se, Tel: 046 - 177 934 

SweTRAP, Swedish Trial Ready Cohorts for early Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases

In the last decade it has become clear that the underlying disease pathologies of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) start to accumulate several decades before onset of overt symptoms. We can now use biomarkers to reliably detect these disease pathologies (e.g., amyloid-beta, tau and alpha-synuclein) even during pre-symptomatic and prodromal phases of the disease (Hansson. Nature Medicine, 2021). In the last years it has become evident from both basic and clinical research that disease-modifying therapies are likely to be much more efficient when initiated during these early pre-symptomatic or prodromal phases of AD and PD, i.e. before widespread and irreversible neurodegeneration has already occurred. A couple of such randomized controlled trials are already ongoing in the USA for pre-symptomatic AD (e.g. the NIH-funded A4 and AHEAD 3-45 studies), and similar studies are planned for prodromal PD. However, Europe should be part of this development, and in order to be competitive we need to establish Trial Ready Cohorts, consisting of individuals with either pre-symptomatic or prodromal disease that subsequently can quickly enter randomized controlled trials evaluating novel pharmacological treatments.

To learn more, visit the SweTRAP website

TWO-PHOTON MICROSCOPY

The two-photon microscopy platform consists of two distinct setups, one for in vivo and one for in vitro applications. The in vivo setup is used to image the living brain of the mouse, particularly the superficial layers of the brain such as the cerebral cortex. The in vitro infrastructure is designed to image deeper structures that are not accessible to in vivo microscopy. For this system we prepare slices of the deeper brain nuclei, and we image them while the neurons are still alive and functional.

The two-photon imaging technology offers the possibility to visualize and quantify dynamic processes in living cells (neurons or glia) with very high temporal and spatial resolution. Examples of such dynamic processes are, calcium influx into cells, or movements of cells and sub-cellular organelles. 

To learn more, visit the Two-Photon Microscopy website

INFRASTRUCTURE REPORTS 2021

INFRASTRUCTURE SURVEY
During spring 2018, MultiPark conducted a survey regarding the use of the associated infrastructures and resources.

A summary of the results can be found here.