What actually are core facilities?

To find out, we asked Professor Elisa May, the director of the Bioimaging Centre (BIC) at the University of Konstanz and founding chairwoman of the German BioImaging − Society for Microscopy and Image Analysis (GerBI-GMB). She explains that the term “core facility” comes in part from the Latin “facilis” for “easy, without difficulty, convenient”. Core facilities are therefore at their core “centres that make research easier and more convenient to carry out”.

Such infrastructure is mainly comprised of laboratories in which state-of-the-art and well-maintained equipment is pooled and made accessible at a single location to both internal and external users for research purposes. Other core facilities also accept samples for analysis and send the measurement results to the users. A third variety provides specialist knowledge that is indispensable for research – in the data analysis or the visual data processing fields, for example.

This vision of research infrastructure that is open to researchers from a spectrum of academic disciplines has always been matched by the aim of advancing collaborative and interdisciplinary top-level research.

What is the purpose of core facilities? To ensure that all researchers at the University of Konstanz, regardless of their departmental affiliation, career stage or personal equipment, have (A) access to first-class research equipment, (B) to create opportunities to interact and collaborate in joint projects, and (C) to pool competencies and expert knowledge, all in a cost-efficient and sustainable way.

In an interview, Elisa May highlights the advantages of setting up shared equipment centres and the benefits for both researchers and students.

How does research benefit from core facilities?

Core facilities are not only nice to have, but have a real benefit for research. A recent survey of the publications resulting from research projects that utilized one or more of the core facilities from the faculty of sciences at the University of Konstanz counted 570 such publications over a four-year period. 260 of these came from the Department of Biology alone – a significant number, explains Elisa May.

“It is interesting to note that around a quarter of these publications were produced through collaboration in different research units.” Core facilities also offer the opportunity to set impulses for new collaborative research projects. “Working at a core facility provides us with a very good overview of our users and their research projects, which can help interlink parties interested in collaborating in future projects,” says May. “This networking potential represents an added value of the core facilities.”

Core facilities can also open up new methods and fields of application through their own research contributions. These highly interdisciplinary projects usually involve the development of new technologies that are not (yet) commercially available. The Bioimaging Centre, for example, has a development laboratory where biologists and physicists work side by side to develop and use novel laser light sources to manipulate cells with light.

Teaching also benefits greatly from the core facilities, he continues: “The students in my master's course “Nanochemistry and Nanoanalytics”, for example, can observe the analytical techniques discussed in class, in small groups, in real time, in such core facilities such as the Particle Analysis Centre or Nanostructure Laboratory. They may even have their own samples processed.

After some training, it is also possible for them to use some equipment to carry out the necessary measurements on their own. Such experiences increase the learning effect and build on the theoretical knowledge gained in the lecture”.

“With the foundation of the Bioimaging Centre, a certain trend reversal set in,” says Elisa May. The campus now houses more than 20 core facilities, which support research in the natural and life sciences as well as the humanities and social sciences. The Department of Biology alone has five core facilities. In chemistry and physics there are six, three in economics, sociology, psychology and sports sciences and six more in linguistics.

Important: Select facilities will be introduced one by one via our core facilities series in the CAMPUS.KN online magazine of the university. Stay tuned to learn more about the technologies and applications available on our campus!

The Bioimaging Centre (BIC)

From the day it was founded on 1 November 2008, the Bioimaging Centre has provided access to its scientific equipment to all university researchers. Biologists use it to examine various objects, ranging from tissue and cells to bacteria. For even smaller samples such as viruses, researchers use the Electron Microscopy Centre.

The Bioimaging Centre also offers access to so-called confocal microscopes that are used to create three-dimensional reconstructions of samples, thus providing spatial impressions of cells. It also has a high-resolution microscope, a technology for which Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner were awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2014.

“It helps to close the gap between light and electron microscopy because it allows the investigation of even smaller structures such as individual molecules in living cells,” explains Elisa May. Living cell microscopy is thus a focus area of the Bioimaging Centre: The life of cells can be observed in real time, from cell division to cell death. It is possible to observe molecules in the cell.

Elisa May describes the process at the BIC as follows: “Users of our microscopy core facilities usually operate the device themselves. Once they have planned a project, they approach us. We discuss the project, provide advice on sample preparation and the choice of microscope as well as on how to handle the collected data and the appropriate assessment type. The users then take part in a training course in which they learn how to use the device of their choice. They can then reserve it and use it day and night for the duration of the reservation period. Should problems arise, the BIC technical and scientific staff provide advice and support”.

Availability and demand

According to Elisa May, the core facilities concept – with the support of the DFG – has firmly established itself within the last five years. Most progress has actually been made at universities, which lag behind non-academic institutions in regard to establishing core facilities: “We can see that the need for advice and suitable structures at universities is particularly high. In terms of becoming an institutional fixture, and in regard to personnel structures and development perspectives, the core facility is still a novelty in the university sector.”

Short innovation cycles represent a major challenge. “You want to be up-to-date, but you also have to take availability and demand into account,” says Elisa May.

If, in consultation with researchers, a demand for newer technology actually emerges, the involved parties work together to search for an opportunity to acquire such technology. Through its infrastructure programmes, for example, our university makes it possible to modernise existing technologies as well as to establish new technologies that can significantly improve the quality of research: “It is often the case that a certain expertise is developed by a working group, resulting in a need that can ultimately lead to the establishment of a new core facility”.

The incorporation of new research infrastructure and core facilities at the University of Konstanz requires the input and coordination of the Committee on Research (AFF). Only after a pilot project has successfully completed the application process and the usual evaluations can it develop into an equipment centre. “It is important that this process always takes place in consultation with the users.”

Establishing core facilities at local level can also be advantageous with regard to the overall scientific landscape: For example, since light microscopy centres in Germany organised themselves into a network, the DFG invited tenders for a large-scale equipment initiative for light microscopy in 2018. “The entire scientific community stood to benefit from this”.

Who looks after the data collected in the core facilities?

“The problem of data – data management and data analysis – is a challenge for all of us,” says Elisa May. “It can only be accomplished through a shared infrastructure. A shared concept is indispensable.” You can read more about research data management at the University of Konstanz in the next uni'kon issue.

In exchange with society

Core facilities at the University of Konstanz also serve to promote exchange with society. They not only open their doors to external users from industry and society, but are also involved in knowledge transfer and the promotion of the next generation of researchers. For example, in collaboration with other centres of the German BioImaging – Society for Microscopy and Image Analysis, the Bioimaging Centre has been participating in the “Maus-Türöffner-Tag” (open house day for fans of the children’s TV show “Sendung mit der Maus”) for several years.

For the University of Konstanz, ensuring transparency in general, and providing young people the opportunity to work with scientific equipment in particular, is very important. During the last “Maus-Türöffner-Tage” in 2017 and 2018, the young researchers were guided by experts in examining how their fingerprints look under the microscope, what is hidden inside a skin cell, and how a microscope is actually constructed. Check out the picture gallery for some impressions of this event.