Provides research services and technical expertise to support businesses in the biotechnology and biosciences sector in Canada.
The Conestoga Biotechnology Research & Innovation Hub (BioHub) facilitates applied biotechnology research and testing services for agricultural, health and life sciences, food, and environmental industries.
BioHub supports startups and established enterprises on their innovation journey by offering:
• Product development and method validation to ensure reliability and performance
• Process and formulation optimization for improved efficiency and outcomes
• Advanced analytical testing using state-of-the-art instrumentation
• Applied research collaboration tailored to their clientele’s innovation objectives
Home to a suite of state-of-the-art instrumentation for chemical analysis, BioHub’s expertise includes identification and characterization of elements, compounds, and polymers in a variety of media. The facility is also equipped to support comprehensive molecular and cellular investigations from DNA expression to live cell imaging, enabling a wide range of research applications. Their microbial research capabilities extend to bacteria and yeast culturing, biotyping, susceptibility testing, and challenge testing. With biosafety level 2 laboratory spaces, they support comprehensive microbial investigations including studies involving pathogenic microbes.
• Proof of concept investigations
• Method validation
• Product development
• Process optimization
• Advanced chemical analysis
• Particle size analysis
• Microscopy
• Environmental testing
• Food testing
• Forensic toxicology
• Histology
• Proteomics
• Metabolomics
• Microbial cultivation
• Microbial biotyping
• Antibiotic susceptibility testing
• Pathogenicity testing
• High-throughput screening assays
• Live cell imaging
• Cell counting and sorting
• DNA/RNA quantification
• Protein quantification
• Blood characterization
- Agriculture, animal science and food
- Chemical industries
- Clean technology
- Environmental technologies and related services
- Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
Specialized labs and equipment
| Equipment | Function |
|---|---|
| Agilent 8890 Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) system | Identify and quantify volatile compounds. |
| Agilent Cary Eclipse Fluorescence Spectrophotometer | Analyze molecules and compounds using fluorescence, phosphorescence, chemiluminescence, or bioluminescence measurements. |
| Agilent 1100 series High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) system | Separate, identify, and quantify components in a mixture for a wide range of samples. |
| Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris 240 Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometer (LC-MS) | Separate, identify, and quantify compounds with extremely high mass resolution. |
| PerkinElmer NexION 5000 Multi-Quadrupole Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) system | Features four quadrupoles to identify and quantify trace elements and isotopes in various types of samples. |
| Thermo Scientific Nicolet Summit Lite Fourier transform infared (FTIR) spectrometer | Identify compounds and polymers. |
| Malvern Panalytical Mastersizer 3000 Particle Size Analyzer and Hydro MV (medium volume) wet dispersion unit | Determine solid particle size distributions from 10 nm – 3.5 mm. |
| Thermo Scientific Attune CytPix Flow Cytometer | Detect, quantify, and differentiate cells using fluorescence detection. |
| Agilent BioTek Lionheart LX Automated Microscope | Inverted microscope capable of fluorescence, brightfield, colour brightfield, and phase contrast microscopy. It contains an in-system incubator allowing for live-cell imaging. |
| Applied Biosystems QuantStudio 6 Pro quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) system | Amplify and simultaneously quantify targeted DNA molecules. |
| Thermo Scientific NanoDrop One UV-Vis Spectrophotometer | Ultraviolet/visible light (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer used to measure DNA, RNA, proteins, and more at extremely low volumes. |
| Beckman Coulter DxH 690T Hematology Analyzer | Measure blood cell size and abundance; can measure red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and reticulocytes. |
| Werfen Premier GEM5000 blood gas analyzer | Measure blood gases, pH, electrolytes, metabolites, CO-Oximetry and more. |
| Bruker IR Biotyper Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR) system | Identify and differentiate between specific strains of microbes. |
| Bruker MALDI Biotyper sirius system | Performs matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry to identify and characterize microorganisms. |
| Thermo Scientific MaxQ 6000 incubated shaker | Combines precise orbital shaking with controlled incubation to culture bacteria, yeast, cell lines, and tissue. |
Private and public sector research partners
• Biofect Innovations
• SiREM
• Cellect Laboratories