What the facility does
Development and improvement of products, processes and procedures in the field of biotechnology in the healthcare, agricultural and industrial sectors.
Areas of expertise
La Cité's Technology Access Centre in Bio-innovation (TAC-B) contributes to the biotechnology sector by accelerating business innovation through support for process or product development and improvement. Our business model is based on a partnership with industry for applied research, co-financed by public and private funds, in which intellectual property is fully transferred to companies.
Our partners have access to qualified scientific personnel and state-of-the-art equipment. Our team has extensive expertise in microbiology, cell biology, plant biology, molecular biology, and genetics. We are fortunate to be able to count on experts in the biology of cannabis, in the development of disease diagnosis tools, in precision fermentation and in cellular agriculture (cultured meat).
Research services
- Development, optimization, and validation of bioprocesses for cellular agriculture (cultured meat and precision fermentation)
- Chemical and biochemical analyses
- Genetic engineering applied to industrial and plant biotechnologies, including CRISPR-Cas9
- Recombinant protein engineering and production
- High-throughput screening platform for optimization of cell culture and fermentation media
- Use of tissue culture (in vitro) as a tool to improve plant production and accelerate varietal selection
Sectors of application
- Agriculture, animal science and food
- Chemical industries
- Clean technology
- Energy
- Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
Specialized labs and equipment
| Specialized Lab | Equipment | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Chemical element analysis | LECO TruSpec CN, TruSpec S Elemental Determinators | Dumas combustion (C,N,S). Quantification of nitrogen, carbon and sulfur in solid samples. |
| Particle analysis | Beckman Coulter Multisizer Z4 | Openings of 20, 30, 50, 100 and 2,000 μm. Particle sizing and quantification. |
| Nutritional analysis | Ankom A200 Fiber Analyzer | Intestinal transit simulator. |
| JEIO TECH TH-ME series environmental chambers | Temperature and humidity control (20-90% relative humidity/RH) for life tests. | |
| Neutec LabMaster-aw NEO | Measurement of water activity in different types of samples. | |
| Analytical chemistry | Sciex 3200 Q Trap LC-MS/MS System | Liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). Separation, identification and quantification of soluble molecules. |
| Shimadzu HPLC-MS system with LC-20AD HPLC Pump, DGU-20A3R HPLC Degassing Unit, SIL-20AC HT Autosampler | High performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS). Separation and quantification of soluble molecules. | |
| Thermo Scientific Dionex lCS-5000 DC Detector / Chromatography Compartment and Dionex lCS-5000 SP Dionex AS-AP Autosampler | Ion chromatography. Separation and identification of charged molecules and ions (amino acids) | |
| UltiMate 3000 Rapid Separation (RS) UHPLC System | Ultra high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC). Separation and quantification of soluble molecule. | |
| Thermo Scientific Dionex lCS-5000 DC Detector / Chromatography Module, Dionex lCS-5000 Single Pump (SP), and Dionex AS-AP Autosampler | Ion chromatography. Separation and identification of charged molecules and ions (amino acids). | |
| Varian AA240 Atomic Absorption Spectrometer | Quantification of chemical elements. | |
| GC-MS System (VOC direct injection), Agilent 6890N Gas Chromatograph with 5975C Mass Selective Detector | Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), Volatile Organic Compound (VOC), Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID). Separation, identification and quantification of volatile compounds (fatty acids, hydrocarbons, alcohol). | |
| Agilent 7890A Gas Chromatograph | Separation and quantification of soluble molecules. | |
| Bruker TANGO FT-NIR spectrometer | Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy. | |
| Tissue culture | Laminar flow hoods | Sterile environment. |
| DASbox® Mini Bioreactor System | Protein production and mammalian cell culture. 250 ml tanks. | |
| Biolog’s OmniLog® PM System | Cell phenotyping. | |
| Applikon small-scale bioreactor system | Protein production and mammalian cell culture. 3.5 L tanks. | |
| CO2 incubator | Tissue culture. | |
| OLYMPUS BX53F Fluorescence Microscope | Visualization of fluorescent material. | |
| VWR growth chamber | Controlled environment for tissue and plant culture. |
Private and public sector research partners
- AmacaThera
- Plantaform
- Segra International
- Spiderwort
- Whiteboard Foods
- Motigenix
- Myo Palate
- Recherches Neuro-Hippocampe
- GeneRxN Research
- Liven Proteins
- LyonLeaf Cannabis
- Growcer
Additional information
| Title | URL |
|---|---|
| Projects and innovations of La Cité’s Office of Research and Innovation. | https://www.collegelacite.ca/bri/projects-and-innovations |
| The TAC-B: Catalyst of innovation at the service of SMEs in biotechnology. | https://youtu.be/FT3OJ-jrNLE |