Core Facility Bioactive Molecules Screening & Analysis

The Core Facility Bioactive Molecules: Screening and Analysis (BMoSA) provides high throughput microbiology screening resources and high-end mass spectrometry for small molecules as well as for polymers.

The CF BMoSA is located at the BOKU campus in Tulln and is associated to two departments (Screening  at UFT, chemical Analysis at IFA).

Covering a broad field of expertise, the CF BMoSA is separated into a screening and chemical analysis part. The latter is further divided into small molecule and polymer analysis.

The screening facility provides hardware and expertise for cooperation projects and contract work. Our robotic liquid handling equipment is especially adapted to perform high throughput searches for bioactive metabolites and enzymes among microorganisms. We further characterize the chemical and biological properties of the found substances.

• investigate the interaction of microbes with other organisms (bacteria, fungi, algae, plant, animal cells) and to identify the production of bioactive substances (antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, bioeffectors, agroceuticals, etc.).

• study metabolomes of microbes under a multitude of environmental and nutritional conditions to identify bio-and agro-technological potential.

• study cells of different origin (microbes, plants, insects) in their mutual stimulatory or inhibitory effects in a high-throughput way.

• study host-pathogen interactions or identify organic control species.

• screen for biotech enzymes

• perform large scale microbiology (BSL2 certified) screening experiments e.g. MIC determination

Contact: Christoph Schüller

In the small molecule analysis part we are focussing on the field of metabolomics. With the available equipment and methods primary as well as secondary metabolites can be analysed and quantified. Besides targeted analytics we have broad expertise in untargeted metabolomics studies using high resolution mass spectrometry. In recent years and projects we gained a lot of experience in the use of stable isotopes in metabolomics studies and developed various workflows for comprehensive untargeted metabolomics studies.

For analytical services we are equipped with

• GC-MSD, Agilent

• LC-HRMS/MS, QExactive HF, Thermo Scientific

• planned for 2023: LC-MS/MS Qtrap

Additionally we offer to assist in your stable isotope labelling assisted metabolomics experiments including the possibility to grow your own labelled plant material.

Contact: Maria Doppler

With a 20+ years of experience in applied polymer biotechnology, the BMoSa Polymer analysis team has a vast experience in the analysis of synthetic polymers.

The team is covering the whole “plastic cycle” spectrum, focusing in particular on three pillars:

• polymer synthesis: analysis of synthesized aliphatic and aromatic polyesters;

• surface functionalization: analysis of chemical changes;

• depolymerization for recycling: analysis of the oligomers released by enzymatic treatments.

Some of the offered services:

Contact: Marcus Pruckner