News

Results for ULS Survey 2023

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) has conducted surveys for users and PIs to evaluate the quality of service provided by the ULS in 2023. The surveys have ended last month and the reports are available via these links: Survey for Users, Survey for PIs. Note that in the last part of the reports you can find the ULS’s response to the respondents’ comments.   On the other hand, 20 survey participants were randomly selected to each receive 2 hours of free equipment usage for their laboratories in March. The result has been announced on the ULS Facebook Page.   If you have any queries about the survey, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Michael Yuen. Thank you for your attention.

ULS Training Session - The Refeyn Two Mass Photometer

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) has just acquired a Refeyn Two Mass Photometer , which applies light scattering-based technique to measure the molecular mass of biomacromolecules, e.g., proteins and DNAs, in their native state. This equipment enables highly sensitive, rapid, and lable-free molecular mass measurement and is suitable for a wide range of applications, such as study of protein-protein interactions, determination of protein oligomerization states, assessment of sample purity, etc (refer to the attached brochure for more information).   There will be a hand-on training session(s) provided by the supplier on 27-Feb (Tue). We would like to invite TEN students/colleagues to join the training and each research group might assign ONE member to attend. One or multiple sessions in the morning and afternoon may be held, depending on the number of registered trainees.   Because of the hand-on nature of the training and lab space limitation, quota is limited to TEN and registration will be on first-come-first-served basis. If you are interested in attending the training, please provide me your name, department, and supervisor information and indicate your preference on morning/afternoon session by this Friday (23-Feb) noon.   Should you have any enquiries, please feel free to contact Dr. So Pui-Kin (Email: bckin@polyu.edu.hk, Tel: 34008797).

ULS Seminar - New Developments in High-speed and Super-resolved Fluorescence Microscopy for Life Sciences

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) is co-organising a seminar with Chinetek Scientific on the recent development in spinning disk confocal microscopy and structured illumination microscopy (SIM).  The focus will be on exploring the diverse range of applications that derive significant benefits from these imaging modalities.  Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from real-case examples presented by scientists working in the fields of high-content screening, spatial biology, live cell imaging, and volumetric imaging.  Details of the seminar are as follows: Date: 1st February, 2024 (Thursday) Time: 10:30 to 11:30 am Venue: Y715, Lee Shau Kee Building (Block Y) Speaker: Dr Carlo Brighi, Application Specialist, CrestOptics   Registration is not required for this seminar but seating will be on a first-come-first-served basis.  Please contact Dr Harvey Chan of the ULS if you have any queries about the seminar.   Thank you for your attention.

ULS Newsletter (10th Issue)

The 10th issue of the ULS newsletter has been issued. Please click the image below to view it online.   In this issue, we feature our newly established Cryo-Electron Microscopy Centre and offer a brief introduction of the cryo-EM technique.   Thank you for your support. May we wish you a joyful holiday and a prosperous new year ahead.

ULS Seminar - Seahorse Real-time Cell Metabolic Analysis

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) is co-organizing a seminar on the Seahorse Real-Time Cell Metabolic Analysis with Bio-Gene. With this platform, key cellular energy metabolic pathway, such as mitochondrial respiration and glycolysis, can be analyzed in real time in live cultured cells, ex-vivo samples or small organisms. For more information about the Seahorse system at ULS, please visit here.   The details of the upcoming seminar are as follow:   Title: Agilent Seahorse – Cell Metabolism Analysis   Date: 14th November 2023 (Tuesday)   Time: 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm   Location: Z407   Speaker: Dr Xiaodong Gong, product application manager of Agilent Cell Analysis Department   Rundown: (1) Seahorse Technology (2) Seahorse Analyzers (3) Seahorse commonly use reagent kits and new kit introduction (4) Application and Sharing   Should you have any enquiries, please contact Dr. Ryan Chow.   All are welcome!   Thank you for your attention.  

New ULS Equipment - Promethion Metabolic Cage System (8 cages)

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) is pleased to announce that the newly acquired set of Promethion Metabolic Cage System (8 cages) is open for booking.   The Promethion Metabolic Cage System allows researchers to simultaneously measure different metabolic parameters in mice, such as indirect calorimetry, energy intake, and locomotion activities, in a noninvasive and automated manner. With the new set of 8 cages, researchers now have the flexibility to use a total of 16 cages in the same set of experiment, or to carry out 2 sets of independent experiments simultaneously.   If you have any inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact Dr. Alan Leung or Dr. Rachel Li.   Thank you for your attention.

Illumina x ULS Seminar: Multiomics NGS Technologies

You are cordially invited to attend the joint seminar co-organised by Illumina and the University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) about the latest advancement in Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS). In this seminar, Illumina will demonstrate different NGS methods and applications across genomics, transcriptomics and epigenomics. The details of the seminar are as follows:   Date: 11 October, 2023   Venue: Y306, Lee Shau Kee Building (Block Y)   Rundown: 10:30 – 11:00: Multiomics – An Overview of Useful Methods and Applications   11:00 – 11:15: Q&A   11:15 – 11:45: Illumina DRAGEN Bio-IT platform: Analysis Pipeline Overview   11:45 – 12:00: Q&A   Due to limited seats, registration will be on first-come-first-serve basis. Please register via this link (https://www.polyu.edu.hk/pfs2/index.php/658847?lang=en) by 10 October, 2023. For any inquiries, please contact Dr. Ryan CHOW.    All are Welcome.   Thank you very much for your attention.

New ULS Equipment - ThermoFisher Krios G4 300 kV Cryo-TEM System

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) is excited to announce that our ThermoFisher Krios G4 300 kV Cryogenic Transmission Electron Microscope (Cryo-TEM) is now open to users. The Krios G4 is a highly stable 300 kV cryo-TEM platform with the Selectris energy filter that allows researchers to examine biological specimens at near-atomic resolution. As the final and most crucial step in the cryo-EM workflow, the Krios G4 enables data collection for subsequent structural analysis of challenging biological targets, such as large complexes, flexible species and membrane proteins, as well as cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) analysis for determination of 3D biological structures in their near-native states. The exceptionally high performance of the system will substantially improve and accelerate data collection, and as a result the development of potential therapeutics.   If you have any enquiries about the Krios G4 300 kV Cryo-TEM or the cryo-EM technique, please do not hesitate to contact Mr Sirui Li or Dr Harvey Chan of the ULS.   Thank you for your attention. May we wish you a delightful mid-autumn festival.

ULS Equipment Upgrade - Abberior STED Super-resolution Microcsope

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) is pleased to announce that our Abberior STED Super-resolution Microscope has completed an upgrade in Germany and is now re-open to users. The new MATRIX detector on our STED system is an array-type avalanche photodiode detector (APD) consisting of more than 20 single-photon-counting APDs in a hexagonal arrangement. The array of APDs can simultaneously image the sample from different angles, and identify and subtract background signals in STED images using physical principles instead of image postprocessing, substantially improving the sign-to-noise ratio.   In addition, the new detector will enable researchers to perform fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) in combination with STED (i.e., STED-FLIM) or confocal microscopy. These would make the STED system the most powerful and versatile fluorescence microscope the ULS has to offer.   If you have any enquiries about the STED system, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Michael Yuen.   Thank you for your attention.

New ULS Service – Next-Generation Sequencing Run Service

The University Research Facility in Life Sciences (ULS) is pleased to announce the launch of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) run service at PolyU.   Two Illumina NGS systems, MiSeq and NextSeq 2000, have recently been installed at the ULS. They employ the sequencing by synthesis technology to perform the run, which greatly reduces the sequencing time and maximizes data output. The 2 systems support data output from 540 Mb to 360 Gb, facilitating studies ranging from RNA sequencing, single-cell profiling to whole genome sequencing.   For more information about the NGS run service, please visit our NGS website.   If you have any inquiries about the service, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Ryan Chow or Dr Alan Leung of the ULS.   Thank you for your attention.