Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics - CING

Research Infrastructure (RI) Name: Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING)

Website: https://www.cing.ac.cy/
Mission: To develop and provide high level clinical and laboratory services, develop and pursue advanced innovative research and provide postgraduate education in the areas of Neurology, Genetics and Biomedical and Medical.
Objective: To function as an International Centre of Excellence and a Regional Referral Centre in the areas of Neurology, Genetics and Biomedical and Medical Sciences.
Research Services provided: The Clinical and Laboratory Services are provided by the following Clinics/Laboratories/Departments:
(1) Neurology and Clinical Genetics Clinics:

(a) Neuropathology Laboratory (Neurology Clinic A)
- Services:
o Clinical evaluation of patients referred from Government neurologists with an emphasis on neuromuscular disease (ALS, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, other myopathies and neuropathies), multiple sclerosis, neurodegenerative and neurogenetic disorders. Since 2002, the Familial Amyloidosis neuropathy clinic is run once a month.
o Inpatient evaluation and treatment of patients as require
o In charge of the only neuropathology lab which handles muscle and nerve biopsies
(b) Neurophysiology Laboratory (Neurology Clinic B)
- Services:
o Services provided are various electrophysiological examinations which include evoked potentials, electroencephalography (routine and long term monitoring), electroretinography, vagus nerve stimulation monitoring, sleep studies and intra-operative monitoring. Click here for a full list of services and an explanation of each examination.
(c) Neurovascular Laboratory (Neurology Clinic C)
o Extracranial Cerebrovascular Examination (Carotid doppler) /test
o Transcranial doppler /test
o Carotid and transcranial doppler both tests
o Transcranial doppler monitoring /test
(d) EMG Laboratory (Neurology Clinic D)
o Nerve conduction studies (NCS, Mixed NCS, Inching)
o Late responses (H-reflex, F-waves)
o Repetitive nerve stimulation (RNS)
o Electromyography (EMG, Quantitative EMG, Single fiber EMG)
Brainstem reflex studies (Blink, Jaw Jerk, Masseter Inhibitory Reflex (MIR))
o Autonomic testing (Sympathetic skin response (SSR))
(e) Neuroscience Lab (Neurology Clinic E)
o Hosting and handling of mice: import, hosting, reproduction and distribution of mice upon request
o Supply of mouse lines commonly used in biomedical research such as C57BL/6, CD1, C57BL/6xCBA F1, DBA, SJL, BALB/c, FVB/N, Rosa26R, CD1 Nude, NOD-SCID
o Import/rederivation of mouse lines by embryo transfer or Caesarean section and fostering
o Export of mouse lines by superovulation and embryo shipment
o Vasectomy of males to be used for pseudopregnancies

o Collaborative Services provoded or could be provided based on the laboratory's expertise and facilities include: Cellular analysis of fluorescently stained cells by flow cytometry, haematological analysis of human and mouse blood samples, HPLC analysis of haemoglobin molecules and globin chains by HPLC, growth and maintenance of human erythroid primary cell cultures and cell lines, design and production of lentiviral vectors for mammalian cellular transductions for the modulation of gene expression based on shRNA and CRISPR/Cas9 methodologies, nucleofection of mammalian cells with DNA, RNA or RNP.
- Main Equipment:
o Thermocycler (x6)
o PCR work station (x3)
o Laminar Flow hood Class II biological safety cabinet (x1)
o 4D Nucleofector unit (x1)
o -80oC freezer (x1)
o Haematology Analyser Sysmex XT2000 iVet (x1)
o CYFLOW CUBE 6 flow cytometer (x1)
o Shimadzu -Prominence HPLC system (x1)
o Heated CO2 incubator for cell culture (x1)
o Tharmac Cytocentrifuge (x1)
o Olympus IX73PIF Fluorescent microscope (x1)
o ABI 7900HT Fast Real time PCR system (x1)

o Sequencing, Genotyping, Transcriptomics

- Main Equipment:
o PCR thermocyclers (units:8)
o RT-PCR instruments (units:2)
o AB Genetic Analyzers (3130xl-units:2, 3500-units:2)
o BioRobot Universal (units:4)
o MALDI-TOF-unit:1

o Genetic diagnosis of Cystic Fibrosis, Familial Mediterranean Fever, Inherited Deafness, Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia type II, Haemochromatosis. Detection of Oligoclonal bands for MS patients. Sweat test for Cystic Fibrosis patients.

- Main Equipment:
o Time lapse fluoresence Microscope
o Thermocycler (PCR)
o Laminar flow hood
o Cell culture hood
o Cell culture incubator
o uUtra centrifuge
o Genetic analyser

o Sequencing, Genotyping, tissue culture, functional analysis

- Main Equipment:
o PCR thermocyclers (units: 6)
o one -80 degrees freezer
o Access to Molecular Genetics core facilities such as AB Genetic Analyzers
(3130xl-units:1, 3500xl-units:1)
o Core tissue culture facility with 2 tissue culture hoods
o 2 incubators
o One fluorescent and one light microscope
o Documentation systems BIO-PRINT IVILBER and BioSpectrume UVP

o Genetic Analyses

o Microarray laboratory (ozone free infrastructures and array scanner)

o Biochemical Analyses

- Main Equipment:
o Spectrophotometer
o Gas chromatography / Mass spectrometry (GC/MS) system
o HPLC system with column housing, column selector and UV detector
o Immunology Analyzer
o UPLC-MS/MS system
o Amino acid analyser
o Spectrofluorometer
o Microplate Fluorescence Spectrometer

o Biomolecular, Chemical and Morphological Analyses
- Main Equipment:
o Electron microscope
o Mass spectrometers
o NextGen sequencer systems

o Diagnostic services for molecular and serological detection of >45 viruses,
>15 bacteria, >10 parasites

o ABI 3500 Sequencer
o Real-Time PCR machine
o Fluorescence microscope Nikon
o Microplate Absorbance reader + washer
o Cell culture facilities

o Hosting and handling of mice: import, hosting, reproduction and distribution of mice upon request
o Supply of mouse lines commonly used in biomedical research such as C57BL/6, CD1, C57BL/6xCBA F1, DBA, SJL, BALB/c, FVB/N, Rosa26R, CD1 Nude, NOD-SCID
o Import/rederivation of mouse lines by embryo transfer or Caesarean section and fostering
o Export of mouse lines by superovulation and embryo shipment
o Vasectomy of males to be used for pseudopregnancies

- Main Equipment:
o Inverted Microscope (1)
o Stereomicroscope (5)
o Cell Culture Microscope (1)
o Biological safety Cabinet (3)
o Fume Cabinet (1)
o Cell culture incubator (3)
o Micromanipulators (1)
o Microinjector (2)
o Micropipette Puller (1)
o Centrifuge (3), PCR (3)

- Service: Internal bioinformatics pipelines that have been developed and are currently available within CING network. These are related to:
o Whole Exome Sequence Preprocessing and Analysis
o RNA Seq Preprocessing and Analysis
o Microarray Data Preprocessing and Analysis
o Proteomics Data Preprocessing and Analysis
o Functional Analysis – Pathway Analysis
o Network Representation and Analysis
o Structural Analysis – Molecular Dynamics – Docking

- Main Equipment:
o Application Cluster: consists of 2 high-end web-servers (Dell PowerEdge R630, Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2660 v3 @ 2.60GHz, Memory Total: 125 GB, CPU(s): 40, OS SSD Disks - RAID1 – Total size: 450GB, DATA SAS Disks - RAID1 – Total size: 560GB)
o Database Cluster: consists of 2 high-end database-servers (Dell PowerEdge R630, Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2660 v3 @ 2.60GHz, Memory Total: 251 GB, CPU(s): 40, OS SSD Disks - RAID1 – Total size: 450GB, DATA SAS Disks - RAID1 – Total size: 280GB)
o High Performance Computing Cluster: consists of 2 high-performance servers (Dell PowerEdge R630, Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2697A v4 @ 2.60GHz, Memory Total: 503 GB, CPU(s): 64, OS SSD Disks - RAID1 - Total size: 450GB, DATA SAS disks - RAID1 – Total size: 560GB)
o The Storage System: consists of a iSCSI/NAS system with RAID 5 Total usable capacity 60TB