Operational Area Department of the CORE Molecular Biology Laboratory Service
The CORE Molecular Biology Laboratory is part of the Center for Biomedical Diagnostics (CDB) at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. It was established in 2015 to centralize and automate the main molecular biology techniques carried out for the diagnostic activity of the CDB Department (Pathology Department, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Department, Immunology Service, and Microbiology Department). The use of state-of-the-art molecular techniques, such as next-generation sequencing (NGS), circulating free DNA analysis, and nCounter technology, places the CORE Molecular Biology Laboratory at the forefront of clinical diagnostic laboratories in our country.
As a key component in the laboratory's development, the CORE Molecular Biology Laboratory has a bioinformatics area aimed at developing algorithms to accurately examine and validate the large flow of information generated.
The Laboratory is organized in different areas:
- Nucleic acid extraction
- qPCR
- Sanger sequencing
- Mass sequencing (NGS) and emerging technologies
- Bioinformatics
The CORE Molecular Biology Laboratory is highly automated and is dedicated to the processing of samples for genetic diagnosis. The main workflows, such as nucleic acid extraction, Sanger sequencing, and a part of mass sequencing, have robotic platforms for processing, which allows them to optimize and increase the performance and to process a large number of samples quickly and accurately.
Last year in numbers
28.000
Nucleic acid extractions
47.300
Sanger sequencing studies
1000
Whole exome studies using NGS
3000
NGS tumoral patology
1.560
Microbiome analyses using NGS
Know the team
The laboratory consists of a multidisciplinary team of doctors, bioinformatics staff, a technical care coordinator, a technical team and an administrative staff. The team of physicians specializes in molecular biology techniques and is involved in the healtcare work of their respective services. Currently, residents of the various services of the CBD (the Immunology Department, the Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Department, the Microbiology Department, and the Pathological Anatomy Department) rotate temporarily through the laboratory as part of their training.
Joan Anton Puig
Head of Service
