Core facilities

Rodent In Vivo Brain Imaging unit (IBI) provides cutting-edge approaches and services for optical imaging of the brain in both anesthetized and awake behaving mice. These approaches allow a unique combination of molecular, cellular, behavioral and circuit-level neuroscience research. IBI is part of the Helsinki In Vivo Animal Imaging Platform (HAIP), one of the life science research infrastructures of HiLIFE.

Helsinki Electrophysiology platform (HEP)  offers cutting edge approaches and services for various in vivo and in vitro electrophysiological techniques. Recordings can be made in cell cultures, acute and cultured brain slice preparations as well as in anaesthetized, head-fixed awake and freely-behaving rodents, and can be combined with behavioral tasks, pharmacological and genetic manipulation as well as electrical and optogenetic stimulation. HEP is part of the Finnish Electrophysiology (FinE) platform in  the Biocenter Finland.

NIPS is being built up to prove differentiation of human iPSC lines to different neurons, glial cells and organoids as a service for researchers of NC. Currently, we have more than 200 iPSC lines available representing healthy control individuals of both sexes, and from patients representing various neurological diseases and psychiatric conditions. The iPSC-based blood-brain barrier model is also being set up, as well as protocols for in vivo transplantation of iPSC-derived cells or organoids to immunodeficient mouse brain. The unit provides material for OMICS approaches as well as in vitro and in vivo imaging and electrophysiology.

Neuronal Cell Culture Unit develops methods for the culture of primary neuronal cells and provides research groups in the Helsinki region with cultured neurons. The neurons provided by the Unit include embryonic rat and mouse hippocampal and cortical neurons, cerebellar granule neurons, peripheral ganglia neurons, hippocampal slice cultures, and neuronal and embryonic stem cells.