Specialist Facilities

Specialist facilities include HPLC for drug metabolite analysis, rapid automated high throughput DNA extraction and sequencing; gene discovery/chip-based expression systems; pharmacogenomics, facilities to generate transgenic mice and for murine gene targeting and a new transmission electron microscopy suite. Instrumentation available for proteomic analyses include multidimensional liquid chromatography (MDLC) and Nanospray systems, as well as several MALDI mass spectrometers and a Q-Tof Mass Spectrometer. A Bruker Autoflex III Smartbeam Vertical MALDI TOF/TOF Mass Spectrometer with a Dionex Ultimate 3000 Nano Liquid Chromatography System controlled by the Compass 1.2 operating system with MASCOT protein database searching through BioTools has recently been acquired. Both fluorescent and non-florescent Arcturus laser capture microdissection systems are on hand. Two state of the art Olympus microscope systems for the imaging of fixed and live cells are also readily available. These can perform 5D imaging: time and high-resolution 3D imaging at multiple points. For automated processing of immuohistochemistry slides, a state of the art Aperio Technologies Slide Scanning System and Software Package allowing high quality digitised images to be created from a large number of glass microscope slides is available.

The Liverpool Cancer Trials Unit has over 10 years of experience in coordinating national and international clinical trials. With the Centre for Medical Statistics and Health Evaluation and the University the LCTU provides the ECMC with robust systems for regulatory compliance and medical statistics.