Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology

Technology platforms

World-class technology platforms supporting our research.

Discovery Research Platform for Hidden Cell Biology

The Discovery Research Platform for Hidden Cell Biology (DRP-HCB) is a cross disciplinary team of researchers and technologists working to develop new techniques to overcome technical and knowledge barriers to scientific progress.

DRP-HCB overview

The DRP-HCB provides open access to five Technology Cores, with state-of-the-art equipment, supported by expert technologists engaged in developing new techniques, and creating bespoke tools for data processing, storage and presentation for downstream analysis, publication and re-use. They also provide training in experimental techniques, data collection and analysis, through courses, summer schools and one-to-one ad hoc support.

  1. Proteomics Core
  2. Structural Biology Core (formerly Cryo-EM and crystallisation facility)
  3. Light Microscopy Core (formerly COIL)
  4. Bioinformatics Core
  5. Data Integration Core (from December 2024).

To access the DRP-HCB Technology Core researchers should first register a project with the DRP-HCB.

Further Information

The DRP-HCB

DRP-HCB Project Registration

Edinburgh Protein Production Platform

Lab equipment, bottles, wires, tubes, for creating proteins

Rapid solutions to the production of proteins and the biophysical characterisation of their ligands underpins many of the questions in structural, translational and cell biology today.

Located in labs in the Michael Swann Building, The Wellcome Trust, and University of Edinburgh funded Protein Production Facility (EPPF) provides researchers with access to state-of-the-art equipment and excellent end user core facilities to address these questions.

The facility is operated by a team of three highly skilled experimentalists who not only ensure that the equipment is well maintained, but also provide training, project advice and will help design and implement your experiments to obtain the best possible results from the equipment.

Edinburgh Protein Production Facility (EPPF)

Media Prep

Photo of a hand holding a disk with prepared media

The Media Prep and Wash Up provide the Wellcome Centre with high volumes of Buffers, Growth Media, Agar plates and Fly food. They collect glassware and equipment daily, for washing, sterilization and reuse as well as safely decontaminating lab waste. The team provide many hundreds of litres of Media, Agars and Buffers per week and over 35,000 fly vials per year. Despite the demanding workload the team are keen to promote and improve sustainability and have been working closely with the labs to tackle single use plastic waste and various other environmental issues.