Core Facilities
Core research facilities at the Faculty of Health Sciences.
Core Research Facilities
There are a great many research facilities managed by the individual departments and research groups in the Faculty of Health Sciences and information on these can be found on the departmental or research group webpages. In addition to these, the Faculty hosts several Core Research Facilities that offer support and services to a broad range of Health Sciences researchers. These are listed here.
The Cape Universities Body Imaging Centre (CUBIC-UCT) is a national imaging facility established through collaboration between the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, the South African Medical Research Council and Siemens. Its main purpose is to advance understanding of diseases, specifically relevant to South Africa and Africa, to improve healthcare management in the country. The state-of-the-art scanners can non-invasively assess the structure, function, metabolism, and integrity of tissues - facilitating diagnosis and enabling studies of disease progression and prognosis.
The advanced Confocal and Light Microscope Imaging Facility offers UCT and other local researchers access to super and near-super resolution, real-time live cell and tissue imaging including a multitude of quantitative imaging and analysis techniques.
The Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) supports three core facilities, two technology platforms, and two service-based facilities established through a myriad of broad-based funding. These high-tech facilities allow for the continued innovative research conducted by member groups at the institute.
The Lionel Opie Preclinical Imaging (LOPI) Core Facility is a joint venture between the Departments of Medicine, Surgery and Anaesthesia and supported by colleagues from various universities and research facilities in the Western Cape, Emeritus Professor Lionel Opie, the University of Cape Town, the National Research Foundation and AGBL Sub Sahara. Researchers can use this state-of-the-art imaging facility to contribute to research excellence (facilitate high-quality publications in peer-reviewed journals), knowledge (including student training programmes), and translation (from bench to bedside) on the continent. The equipment is non-invasive and assists researchers in achieving ethical goals of reducing the number of animals used for research, while refining the procedures performed on animals.
This university-wide core research infrastructure provides a platform for integrative, interdisciplinary preclinical research; education and training in laboratory animal science and ethics; and related veterinary scientific services.
UCT Clinical Research Centre (CRC) is an early phase clinical trial unit equipped to conduct first-in-human studies for the investigation of medicinal products and medical devices. The CRC has its own Research Pharmacy, as well as a Sample Processing Laboratory.