Dr. Sebastian Bundschuh
Head of the Biophysics Core Facility
Tel.: +49(351)210- 2039
Email: bcf(at)mpi-cbg.de
Biophysics Core Facility (BCF)
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG)
Pfotenhauerstr. 108
01307 Dresden
The Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden is one of 85 research institutes that collectively form the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science – Germany’s leading institution for basic research in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and the humanities - in the service of the general public. MPI-CBG is an international institute which conducts interdisciplinary multi-scale research in molecular life science and hosts independent research groups with expertise in molecular biology, physics and bioinformatics (www.mpi-cbg.de).
In order to support scientific goal of research groups and provide access to cutting edge technics for members of the scientific community, MPI-CBG centralized broad range of key technologies and instrumentation in scientific core facilities headed by experts (https://www.mpi-cbg.de/research/scientific-cores-support/). The core facilities at the MPICBG are independent of any research groups. They are open for MPI-CBG scientists as well as external academic and non-academic scientific organizations.
MPI-CBG is run according to full cost accounting principles. Access to the scientific core facilities is granted on a ‘recharge basis’ whereby the actual project-specific usage of the scientific core facility is recharged (for internal budgets) or invoiced (for third party-funded projects or external users). Importantly, all costs are categorized, monitored and accounted for such that ONLY project specific eligible costs and no general costs are included in the invoice charged to grants.
The following Terms of Use is binding for all employees and users of the Biophysics Core Facility (BCF) at MPI-CBG.
The mission of the Biophysics Core Facility (BCF) is to provide technology and expertise for pursuing biophysical analysis of living systems at scales that bridge from molecules to tissues and organs and to provide access to imaging technologies not yet commercially available by establishing prototype systems in the facility. The BCF assists through consultation, training and project collaborations.
The BCF provides following services to research groups:
List of the supported systems and workflows:
Optical Trapping and Fluorescence Microscopy
Application and hardware support for two optical tweezers (LUMICKS Q-Traps) equipped with 4 traps and correlated fluorescence microscopy (TIRF-WF and confocal, respectively.
Nanoindentation
Application support for the Chiaro-ST Nanoindenter from Optics11, mounted on an inverted Zeiss (Axiovert 200M) microscope, located in the Light Microscopy Facility (LMF).
Micropatterning and Structuration
Application and hardware support for the PRIMO-1 micropatterning system from Alveole, mounted on an inverted Nikon (Eclipse Ti2) microscope.
Laser Cutting
Application support for one Zeiss spinning disk microscope equipped with a UV laser cutter (Rapp Caliurn) and two Zeiss LSM 780 NLO systems equipped with near-infrared (NIR) femtosecond lasers (Coherent Chameleon Vision II) located in the Light Microscopy Facility (LMF).
Imaging and Microscopy
All new users are requested to schedule an appointment for a scientific discussion with the member of the BCF team before booking the equipment for the first time. During the meeting the users together with the BCF staff will define the most suitable systems, the required action items, and a timeline for the project.
To make experimental prototype systems available MPI-CBG researchers, the BCF has established collabora9ons both with hardware developer labs and companies. During the project discussion users and BCF staff will decide to which extent any results from the project can be communicated with the hardware collaboration partners.
The training on any BCF system will also include a General Introduction to the BCF MPI-CBG which is provided in person by one of the staff members of the BCF MPI-CBG and which covers following topics:
BCF Booking Database
Booking Rules and User Responsibilities
Safety and Waste
As per internal policy, internal users have a higher priority, however, the facility head decides the feasibility of the project before star9ng and may reject requests at his sole discretion.
Internal users receive a monthly report where the usage of the facility is summarized, whereas non-internal users receive an invoice on a quarterly basis.
The MPI-CBG is employing an online central User management system (‘Centralized Billing and Recharge System’ or ‘CBRS’) that combined with a tracking and booking system, enables an accurate and transparent recharge. Three User categories (external, collaborator and internal) ensure only eligible project specific costs are invoiced to grants while full costs are invoiced to external Users.
The MPI-CBG provides a high level of research services and facilities to the research groups, in the most cost effective way and making the most efficient use of combined resources.
Users are charged a user fee according to the project specific usage of the resources and, depending on the User’s relationship with the MPI-CBG, will be invoiced on the basis of the three categories mentioned above:
“Internal users” are staff members of MPI-CBG, including employees, stipend holders, guest scientists / CBG-Fellows, and other research groups belonging to the Max Planck Society. Internal users are charged project specific personnel and consumables costs. Internal User prices are recharged to all grants awarded to the MPI-CBG and consist only of eligible costs. Importantly, such ‘Internal invoices’ represent a lower cost burden to the grant than is permi]ed by the funding agencies (DFG, BMBF, EU, ERC) since instrument depreciation is not included.
“Collaborators” are formally working together with an MPI-CBG research group. The status “Collaborator” needs to be approved by the Chief Operating Officer ‘COO’ of the MPI-CBG. A Collaboration Agreement is mandatory for each ‘Collaborator’ User status and has to be supported by additional documentation e.g. a joint grant application, jointly supervised student or postdoctoral fellow, or collaboration within a consortium. Collaborators are charged personnel, consumables and equipment depreciation.
“External users” are all users who are neither internal nor collaborators. They are charged full costs including personnel, consumables, equipment depreciation and indirect costs (administrative indirect costs related to personnel and building indirect costs related to building running costs). Prices are adjusted on a yearly basis.
MPI-CBG Services and Facilities provide their support and perform their services as a service provider and deliver the work results of such services without making claim to intellectual property pertaining to or related to the work results. As such and for the avoidance of doubt, all intellectual property rights pertaining to or related to the work results remain with and are owned by the User. Inventions and improvements or modifications to the technology platforms of the MPI-CBG Services and Facilities that do not incorporate the work results but that may have been discovered and/or reduced to practice during the course of performing the services belongs to the MPI-CBG and Max Planck Society and are covered by the respective Intellectual Property policy of the Max Planck Society.
Work performed and data generated in the MPI-CBG core services and facilities requires the acknowledgement of the relevant service or facility if the work results of MPI-CBG Services and Facilities are used in scientific publications, papers, posters, presentations, grant applications, reports or other publications. The standard sentence for acknowledging the MPICBG Services and Facilities is: “We would like to thank the following Services and Facilities of the MPI-CBG for their support: Name of the Facility/Facilities”. A copy of the publication(s) acknowledging the support of MPI-CBG Services and Facilities shall be sent to the relevant MPI-CBG Services and Facilities Leader.
The user has to comply with the MPI-CBG "General Laboratory Regulations" and "Operating Instructions S1" and Operating Instructions S2" as well as any other relevant operating instructions that may apply to the scope of work executed at MPI-CBG.
The user has to comply with all instructions given by the MPI-CBG Service Leader or appointed supervisor within the facility and report any problems or safety relevant issues to the MPI-CBG supervisor.
Users are obliged to notify the Services and Facility Leader on malfunction or damage of the instruments without delay.
External users are responsible for being insured by their employer or affiliated institute during their stay at MPI-CBG, and are liable for any damage caused by them during their stay.
Local data deletion policy
Central data storage
The central storage systems of MPI-CBG provides network protocol (SMB and NFS) access to storage and is connected to the internal network of the MPI-CBG. Access control to this storage is created on a project basis and access can be easily configured to be shared between service and facility members, researchers, groups, and any others with MPI-CBG accounts.
All data on the central storage is wri]en to two tape copies in addition to being on disk and one copy is removed to offsite storage in order to assure that all data can be restored in case of a disaster. Projects when closed or published remain on tape and are archived according to good scientific practice. Access to the central storage systems is, in general, limited to internal users.
Internal users have free access to the central storage systems of the MPI-CBG for the data generated and used by the services and facilities.
Collaborators may request access to this central storage for the duration of the collaboration. This request is routed through the internal host lab collaborating with the external user who takes responsibility for the guest during their stay.
External users are requested to consult with the service or facility they are using to determine what type of data storage facilities they will require. The general rule is that data is stored within the MPI-CBG temporarily while processing or capturing, but should be moved to the home institution of the user as soon as is reasonably possible. The MPI-CBG provides tools to exchange data between the services and facilities and the home institution of external users. As the size and type of data varies significantly between the service and facilities the recommended method of transfer also varies. In the case of microscopy data external users are allowed to use the local storage attached to the individual microscopes for data storage for up to one month. After this time data is deleted automatically to make space for new data capture. In the case of exceptional data set size this time period may be reduced in order support the number of users using the systems.
The MPI-CBG IT Department is willing to work with other institutions when required to establish methods to temporarily store, move, and synchronize data to the external user’s institution if the project or usage of the facilities requires it.
Whenever users experience a problem with the system they use they are requested to report the issue to the BCF either via bcf@mpi-cbg.de, or vial the PPMS booking database. For urgent troubleshooting cases the BCF Hotline is available daily during workdays Monday to Friday from 9.00 –17.00. Tel.: 00 49 351 210 2039.
All users are asked to become part of the BCF user community by subscribing to the BCF-user@mpi-cbg.de mailing list and to specific mailing lists associated with the selected categories of systems. BCF staff uses these mailing lists to communicate important topics related to the operation of the systems.
Whenever a user is not sure about BCF operating rules, usage of specific systems, availability of different technologies, or any other topics related to the operation of the BCF then it is ALWAYS highly recommended to contact BCF staff and to ask for individual consultation regarding the topic of interest.