The Laboratorio di Biologia dello Sviluppo has competence, expertise and instrumentation for:

1) Manipulation of mammalian gametes, in vitro fertilisation and embryo culture. The main instruments include: CO2 incubators, stereomicroscopes, inverted microscopes, sterile flow-hoods, heating plates.

2) Micromanipulation of gametes, preimplantation embryos, inner cell masses (ICMs) and single somatic cells. The main instruments include: two fluorescence inverted microscopes equipped with mechanical micromanipulators and CCD cameras controlled by a computer software; one of the inverted microscopes is also provided with a tweeser and scissor laser system (Cell Robotics) for the optical microdissection of cells, nuclei, chromosomes and cell organelles. A puller, a microforge and a grinder for micropipette preparation.

3) DNA and RNA in situ hybridisation and immunocytochemistry. The main instruments include: two fluorescence microscopes equipped with cooled CCD cameras (Photometrics CH350/A) controlled by a computer software, thermocycler for in situ polymerase chain reaction (PCR), incubators, centrifuges.

4) Histology. The main instruments include: incubators, a microtome, fume-hoods.

5) Single-cell PCR and single-cell semiquantitive RT-PCR. The main instruments include: three thermocyclers, four flow-hoods, one Biorad Gel Doc system for the acquisition and analysis of elettrophoretic gels.