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UVic Health Core

The Health Core is a network of four open-access Biosafety Level 2 labs. These on-campus facilities are available to all UVic researchers, students, and industrial partners for academic or commercial purposes.

We provide access to advanced equipment, expert training and technical support to facilitate interdisciplinary health research. You can also directly commission our services.

The goal of our facility is to open new research areas and to build new capabilities for UVic and our partners.

Using the facilities

Locations

  • Bob Wright Centre
  • Petch (two lab spaces), office in RM 025
  • Hut R

New users

Contact Charmaine Wetherell, the Facility Manager, or Kristen Heideman, the Facility Assistant, to register.

Anyone can apply to use the facility, regardless of discipline.

Before users can access any equipment, they must complete a mandatory training session and any required training certificates.

Returning users

If you are starting a new project please get in touch with us to discuss your needs before using the online booking system.

All users must use the reservation systems of each instrument they wish to operate. Users who fail to attend their reserved time will still be charged for their session.

User fees

Training, usage and service rates vary depending on the experimental needs of the users.

We offer a two-tiered system:

Safety & training

Users need the appropriate level of bio-safety certification. Certificates in the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) for lab workers, Laser safety, and Biosafety are commonly required.

You will be informed of specific safety and training certificate requirements when you sign up for each lab or instrument.

Learn more about safety training on the . 

Equipment list

  • Fumehoods
  • Bench space for experimental set up
  • Scales and balances (micro and gross)
  • Sonicating water bath
  • Probe tip sonicator
  • Micropipets, serological pipets, and multi channel pipets (both standard and electronic)
  • Microfuges 
  • Sonicators:
    • Probe tip
    • Water Bath 
  • Lyophilizer
    • Cabinet and Jar style
  • pH meter(s)
  • Microwave
  • Hybridization oven
  • Heat/Stir plates
  • All standard laboratory glassware
  • Flammables storage
  • Distilled water

  • Dedicated Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) and Human Pathogens & Toxins Act (HPTA) certified space
  • Class IIA Biological Safety Cabinet
  • CytoFLEX Flow Cytometer (Beckman Coulter)
    • 3 lasers, 6 colours, 8 parameters, 13 dye band-pass filters
    • Violet 405nm , Blue 488nm, Red 638nm with FSC and SSC.
    • 96 well plate loader module with mode control switch
  • Bright field and Fluorescence Imager (Cytation 5, Biotek)
    • Live cell imaging with CO2 and incubator functions
    • 25x apo, 4x, 20x, 60x objectives
    • Adaptors that can image T-25 plates, Petrie dishes, 96,48, 24, and 12 well plates, and slides
    • DAPI, GFP, Texas Red
    • 2ul protein quantification spectrophotometer (8 samples +2 blanks at a time)
  • 3D Tissue Printer (Celllink)
  • CO2 Incubators
  • Pipette controllers for serological, plastic, single-use, pipets.
  • Dedicated micropipets
  • Water bath
  • Frosty (for preparing cryo storage of cell lines)
  • Automatic cell counter (Countess, Invitrogen)
  • Inverted Tissue Culture Microscope (10x – 40x)
  • Water bath
  • Cold and Cryogenic Storage
    • Fridge, -20°C, -80 °C, LN2