Coordinated And Integrated Labs Working Together.

The primary mission of the Biological Imaging Development (BIDC) CoLab is to provide the UCSF scientific community with access to cutting-edge optical microscopy. We also develop and bring new technologies to campus, lower the entry barrier for researchers to perform quantitative and advanced light microscopy, and offer support in both data acquisition and analysis through collaborations, consultations, and training. Our current instrument portfolio includes laser scanning confocal microscopes, a multiphoton system for intra vital imaging, a super-resolution spinning disk confocal optimized for live cell microscopy and optogenetics, as well as platforms for spatial proteomics and large volume light sheet microscopy.

The Data Science CoLab is a collaboration-based research lab with a focus on systems immunology and computational methods development. Our research centers on understanding patient immune state using single-cell methods, primarily CyTOF and single-cell sequencing, in a variety of contexts including infection, cancer, and at steady-state. We also study the interactions between the immune system and the microbiome at the systems level. We facilitate close collaborations between experimental and computational biologists and provide tools and training for biologists who want to better engage with their data.

D2B CoLab is a collaboration-based research lab that focuses on profiling the immune system in a various set of diseases such as cancer, viral infection, autoimmune diseases and neurodegeneration. We use cutting edge technologies such as multi-parametric flow and mass cytometry, and bulk and single-cell RNA-seq to define the state of the immune system in both patients and healthy individuals. Our focus is to better understand the immunological context of different diseases in order to expand and improve immunotherapies.

The Flow CoLab is a technological center in the field of flow and mass cytometry that assembles a team of expert scientists facilitating the advancement of research by providing access to state-of-the-art instrumentation, empowering its users through training in the best practices and expert support to the UCSF’s research community and all CoLabs partners.

The Genomics CoLab specializes in the development and adoption of cutting-edge genomic approaches for collaborative and service-based research projects. These approaches include bulk- and single-cell RNA-seq, single cell multiomic approaches, small RNA-Seq, ChIP/ATAC-seq and whole exome/genome sequencing. We are also actively working on integrating novel genomic methods, such as combinatorial genomic methods, spatial transcriptomics, and new epigenomic approaches and on improving existing methods, such as increasing throughput and decreasing costs of bulk RNA-seq methods.

We collaborate with outside teams that provide additional expertise to enhance the scope of our CoProjects.

Our BSL3 Incubator offers technologies, infrastructures and pipelines that are complimentary to CoLabs resources. They work closely with the CoLabs to offer additional support and expertise on some of our CoProjects. 

Plug-in teams offer expertise in free-standing technologies that enhance the scope of some of our CoProjects. Our Plug-ins include Gnotobiotics, Metabolomics, Microbial Genomics, Microsurgery, and Organoid CoLabs.