Service Area Laboratories
In order to stay competitive, research institutions are obliged to continuously invest in high-end equipment for their laboratories. Due to the high costs of modern laboratory infrasructures, it is fundamental to establish synergies between working groups, research areas and institutions. Those synergies allow the efficient use of specialized machines as well as the achievement of high degrees of optimization for protocols and proceedings. The Service Area Laboratories was created in order to accomplish this task.
Our Mission
The Service Area Laboratories and its staff provide a high-end work-flow-based environment for research projects dealing with evolution, diversity and systematics of plants, lichens and diatoms.
The Service Area Laboratories can be used by Staff of the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, the Borsch Group in the Institute of Biology - Systematic Botany and Geography of Plants and the Center for Genomics in Biodiversity Research (BeGenDiv). In this context it can also be used by students and staff of the Dahlem Centre of Plant Sciences (DCPS).
One Laboratory - Two Locations
Spread over two locations, the laboratory facilities of the Service Area cover approximately 450 m2. Institutionally, the Service Area Laboratories is affiliated on one side to the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Berlin-Dahlem, and on the other side to the Borsch Group in Institute of Biology, Systematic Botany and Geography of Plants. Both institutions are part of the Freie Universität Berlin.
The activities of the laboratory facility located in the Botanical Museum (Königin-Luise-Str. 6-8), mainly focus on Genome- and DNA-analyses (including barcoding), micromorphology and ultra-sculpture of botanical surfaces and the cultivation of diatoms. A field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) is available.
The activities of the laboratory facility located in the Botanical Institute (Altensteinstr. 6) mainly focus on DNA/RNA analyses related to population genetics and genome sizing using flow cytometry. In addition, the facility is equipped with a S1-area for cloning purposes.
Service Area Laboratories and our team of highly professional technicians offer
- competent technical support
- ample lab space
- high-end equipment
- standardized methods
- continuous method development
- accurate (pre-)project cost calculations
- support at time planning
- ordering and management of supplies and chemicals
The scientific support for all projects is organized within the different focal areas, working groups or projects of the botanical institute or botanical garden and botanical museum, Berlin-Dahlem.
(working groups botanical institute, research groups botanical museum)
