Environmental (bio)analytics instrumentation

Environmental pollution by chemicals is a complex and omnipresent problem. It affects ecosystems and human health. UFZ research contributes to understanding and minimising the effects of environmental pollution by chemicals. This includes an inventory and assessment of the current status and the development of solutions towards a low-pollution, liveable environment. To this end, the UFZ's environmental and bioanalytical equipment integrates isotope analysis, high-throughput toxicological screening, metabolomic and proteomic profiling and nanoscale visualisation to provide a multidimensional perspective on environmental processes. 

This makes it possible to understand interactions in ecosystems, to assess the effects of chemicals in the environment and in organisms including humans, and to investigate their toxicological and biochemical basis.

CITEPro was developed to increase the throughput of bioanalytical, toxicological and analytical methods. The robot-assisted platform enables high-throughput sample preparation, automated exposure of cell cultures and aquatic organisms as well as the analysis of effects and the determination of chemical concentrations.

The Laboratories for Stable Isotopes (LSI) are an association of UFZ research laboratories with many years of expertise in the analysis of stable isotopes. It combines innovative instruments and expertise and thus enables cross-scale analysis, which is used, for example, to investigate biogeochemical cycles and to characterise the life cycle of chemicals.

The ProMetheus platform offers state-of-the-art mass spectrometry for the profiling, identification and quantification of exogenous and endogenous metabolites in epidemiological studies and cell models. ProMetheus also enables quantitative proteome analyses using various methods.

ProVIS is a technology platform that combines imaging with chemical analysis methods for the investigation of samples, structures and surfaces of predominantly biological origin in the nanometre range. It includes high-resolution microscopy and mass spectrometry and focusses on the analysis of microorganisms that are relevant to environmental processes.