Research facilities at GUIDE

GUIDE considers the area of biotechnology of strategic importance and part of our technology strategy is therefore aimed at initiating and actively supporting the establishment and/or improvement of facilities needed for research and development of biotechnology medicines. Globalisation accompanied by massive advances in computing and automation has led to major shift in how research is carried out. Centralised resources, or resources available through a virtual network play an increasingly important role in advances made in individual research programmes. GUIDE is closely involved in the strategy and planning of the required equipment, as well as the management of and access to equipment (facilities) already available. Both (post)genomics and proteomics technologies feature strongly.

The quality of the facilities, was assessed as part of the assessment systems for all Dutch university research, cccording to the Standard Evaluation Protocol Version 2009. The peer review committee wrote:

'Researchers within GUIDE have excellent central facilities within UMCG at their disposal, such as the new animal facility with its ‘mouse clinic’, top level imaging facilities, the genomics coordination centre and access to high level expertise within the Faculty of Natural Sciences in the areas of bioinformatics and protein chemistry. The close organisational and geographical proximity of the GUIDE groups (everything under one roof) provides great advantage for collaboration and cross fertilisation, which was illustrated by the numerous research projects that cross-linked the group borders (and are described in more detail in the PRC reports on the individual programmes).'

An overview of the facilities is given