Core offers various services related to animal model generation and maintenance.

The Platform empowers research by providing expertise, cutting edge technology, and efficient workflows in histological processing, analysis, & interpretation.

Facility is dedicated to conducting preclinical and clinical brain imaging research in the field of mental health. Researchers at the Douglas CIC use several brain imaging methods, including MRI scanners, to non-invasively understand the brain structure and functions that are altered by mental illnesses. Provides platform to analyse brain imaging data from functional and structural neuroimaging techniques.

Facility dedicated to preclinical and clinical research in brain imaging in the field of mental health to foster development of new biomarkers for early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of neuropsychiatric conditions. Instruments include human (3T MRI Siemens Prisma Fit) and animal (7T Bruker Biospec) imaging equipment. Expert staff provides support for project design, acquisition and analysis. Core offers project specific conceptual assistance, 3D printing and prototyping in addition to facilities for equipment production (coil design and production). Team consists of traditional and computational neuroscientists, basic and clinical researchers, image analysts, magnetic resonance imaging physicists, and expert technologists.

First of its kind in Canada, PACB is a non-for-profit facility providing researchers worldwide with standardized, high-quality primary airway cells from normal and a large variety of airway diseased donors.


Highly differentiated primary epithelial cells are essential for studies of airway physiology/pathophysiology, cell biology, inflammation, mucosal immunity, and for translational research to develop new therapeutics. While cell lines are not representative of genetic variation and fail to differentiate into the various cell types found in vivo such as ciliated and goblet cells. Therefore, primary cells are considered as the gold standard when testing hypotheses regarding disease pathogenesis and preclinical development of new therapeutics.
The reduced accessibility to primary human bronchial epithelial cells (pHBE) resulting from high cost and low variability discourages investigators, which has a negative impact on the progress of basic research and drug development, while there is a critical need for drugs for CF patients in particular.
The cells distributed by PACB, isolated from a large variety of donors with different genetic backgrounds, are essential for improving our understanding of CF and other respiratory diseases and for translational research to develop new therapeutic agents.

The PACB is certified by the UBC
Office of Biobank Education and Research Biobank Certification Program.

The McGill University Life Sciences Complex Advanced BioImaging Facility (ABIF) offers more than a dozen state-of-the-art light microscopy platforms. With tremendous expertise our in-depth training and expert advice will accelerate any light microscopy research project. Comprehensive consultations, sample preparation advice, ongoing support, image processing, image analysis and preparation of data for publication all contribute to using researchers time effectively, generating high quality quantitative data and elevating research projects to the next level. The facility has expertise in many areas of cellular imaging including, but not limited to, live cell imaging, FRAP, FLIM, FRET, FCS, image correlation spectroscopy, TIRF, spectral imaging, high content screening, quantitative image analysis, and custom image analysis. More recently we have been moving into AI/ML/DL for image analysis and generating custom ImageJ workflows for users.

The Cell Imaging and Analysis Network (CIAN) provides services and tools to researchers from within or outside the McGill community. CIAN is composed of six scientific platforms:
Cell Imaging (confocal and fluorescence microscopy), Proteomics (2D, DiGE), Automation/High Throughput Screening (pinning robot and liquid handler), Protein Expression for Antibody Production, Genomics (real time PCR), and Data Storage/Analysis (server and workstations).
Users submit project proposals, and can obtain training in any aspect of the facility.
CIAN is designed to facilitate training, enhance interactions, and to share resources and expertise.

The Structural Biology Platform at the Université de Montréal offers access to several state-of-the-art scientific instruments intended to answer structural biological questions for the scientific community.

The platform houses a variety of advanced instruments. It features high-field NMR spectrometers (500, 600, and 700 MHz) with Bruker NEO consoles, ideal for studying protein interactions, RNA-small molecule screening, biomolecular assignments, and structure calculations. The platform also supports biological small-angle X-ray scattering (BioSAXS) with a liquid-metal-jet X-ray source for rapid macromolecular analysis. Additional tools include a TwoMP mass photometer for single-molecule mass measurements, a SEC-MALS system for molar mass determination, an isothermal titration calorimeter (ITC), and robotics for crystal tray preparation. A bioinformatics room equipped with Linux computers is available for data analysis.

Highly qualified personnel offer training and support to ensure high-quality data acquisition and analysis. Research consultation and turn-key services are available upon request.

Flow cytometry is a technique allowing the analysis of the physical and functional characteristics of each cell contained in a cell suspension. Thus, it is possible to evaluate the proportions of different cell subpopulations present in a cell suspension at very high speed (several thousand cells per second). This technique allows precise and rapid measurement of parameters such as the size of the cells, their nature, their DNA content as well as the expression of surface or even intracellular molecules. These molecules are detected using fluorescent probes which are excited by lasers.

Today, the new generations of devices have up to 7 lasers which make it possible to measure more than 40 different parameters. Some devices sort cells based on these parameters and isolate them into pure cell subpopulations for further analysis or to put them in culture to study their functions.

Individual mandatory training is necessary to access our facility. The ARIA III cell sorter as well as the SONY SH800 are equipped with a negative pressure hood allowing the sorting of potentially infectious samples including human cells from healthy donors.

Optical and Fluorescence microscopy facility. From regular brightfield microscopes to high performence LSM900- Airyscan confocal microscope.
Also Image Analysis with Imaris Full Spectrum and ClearDeconvolution software.

Bio-Imaging platform offering a wide diversity of instruments and applications coupled to dedicated support and expertise in microscopy.

The core facility offers a range of services unique in Canada for the study of carbohydrate and energy metabolism in rodents such as routine tolerance tests (glucose, lipids, pyruvate, insulin) and metabolic cages.

The platform also has exceptional expertise in performing hyperglycemic clamps as well as Hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps, which are more informative than tolerance test.

Our expertise covers:

research projects carried out at the cellular or tissue level and on animals,
complete metabolic phenotyping of genetically modified rodents,
evaluation of the effect of pharmacological or molecular interventions on carbohydrate and/or energy metabolism in healthy rodent models or in obese or diabetic models.
All surgical procedures, metabolic tests, dosing and data analyses are carried out by our staff.

Based at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, the Molecular and Cellular Microscopy Platform (MCMP) offers access to various microscopes and services.

Based at the Douglas Research Centre, the Douglas-Bell Canada Brain Bank (DBCBB) houses a large collection of brains from people with diverse psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder and substance use disorders, as well as brains from individuals with various neurological and developmental disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In addition, the DBCBB manages a large relational database containing demographic, clinical and developmental histories from donors.

Core provides technical support and expertise to enable measurement based care and compute focused research. Service consists of computing platform, composed of redundant high-capacity storage system, along with compute cluster and workstations, tied together with unified single-sign-on user and group management. Platform has facilities for capturing form-based, interactive testing-based and arbitrary binary (imaging etc.) data. Allows clinical researchers to track the trajectories of participating patients across Douglas clinics.