Photo Laboratoire
Laboratory

Laboratory

UMR BOA has 36 permanent INRAE staff, attached to the PHASE (Animal Physiology and Breeding Systems) and GA (Animal Genetics) departments, and 3 research professors from the University of Tours. The unit has 4220 m² of laboratory space.

UMR BOA hosts a large number of interns and contract staff, including around ten who are preparing a PhD in Biological Sciences.
UMR BOA researchers produce an average of 36 A-rank publications per year.

Organization of the laboratory: 3 research teams

Support personnel:

The support AMN team are responsible for administrative and financial management, secretarial services, reception and missions, procurement, contract management, laundry, documentation, and logistics.

On-site partners:

  • A group of engineers from ITAVI (Technical Institute of Aviculture) is present on the site and collaborates with INRA within the framework of the program UMT BIRD (Mixed Technological Unit Biology and Innovation for Poultry Research and Development).
  • The poultry branch of the SYSAAF (French Poultry Breeders and Aquaculture Selection) is hosted on the site and is a partner in promoting the application of the results obtained in the field of selection.

Specific equipment and devices:

Laboratory equipment:

  • Physico-chemical analyses: plasma torch spectrometry (ICP-OES), lipid assay chain, nitrogen assay chain (Kjeldahl), near infrared spectrometry (NIRS), calorimetry, electromechanics (compression test, Instron), rheometer, thermography (Infra-Red camera, FLIR),
  • Biochemistry: analytical and preparative chromatography equipment (HPLC, UPLC, GPC, Iatroscan), spectrophotometry, IR imaging (Odyssey), oxygraph (mitochondrial respiration, HANSATECH), automated biochemical assays (ARENA 20XT),
  • Molecular biology: quantitative PCR devices (Agilent 2100 bioanalyzer, epMotion distribution robot and Roche LC480 real-time PCR),
  • Histology: freezing microtome, microscopes for visible and fluorescence analysis, camera, fluorescence slide reader (GenePix), image analysis software,
  • Cell culture rooms (laminar flow hoods, CO2 incubators, etc.).

Genetic models for understanding the determinism of agronomic traits:

  • Chicken lines that are divergent for ultimate muscle pH (meat quality), digestion, growth, fertility.