Research at the GMI is supported by state-of-the-art scientific core facilities that form the backbone of a dynamic and collaborative research ecosystem. On campus, the GMI shares scientific facilities with IMBA and the IMP, providing access to advanced resources. In addition, the Vienna BioCenter Core Facilities (VBCF) complement this infrastructure, offering specialized services to researchers on campus and external customers.
The scientific facilities increase efficiency and reliability and serve as hubs for interdisciplinary collaboration, enabling innovative solutions through shared expertise.
Highly skilled teams support researchers with experimental design, instrument operation, and data analysis, enabling them to conduct impactful science.
The VBCF Plant Sciences Facility (PlantS) is an essential resource for researchers at the GMI. PlantS operates 23 highly specialized plant growth chambers (phytotrons) and a high-throughput plant phenotyping system offering expert support for plant science at the Vienna BioCenter and beyond. A highly skilled interdisciplinary team combines expertise in plant care, technology development, software engineering and image analysis to ensure the delivery of high-quality data.
At the heart of the VBCF Plant Sciences Facility lies PHENOPlant, a state-of-the-art phenotyping system launched in 2021 with funding from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). This groundbreaking infrastructure allows researchers at the GMI and external partners to investigate plant growth, resilience, and adaptation under a range of highly controlled conditions. By simulating abiotic stressors (drought, frost, heat, salinity) and biotic stressors like pests, PHENOPlant provides data that explain how plants respond to different environments and substances – insights that may help tackle global challenges caused by climate change and food insecurity. Jakub Jez, the PlantS team lead, and his team provide end-to-end support, from protocol establishment to data analysis.
PHENOPlant’s advanced design includes tailored growth chambers equipped with multispectral LED lighting and a conveyor system for automated, high-throughput phenotyping. This system integrates numerous physiological and morphometrical imaging, weighing, and watering stations, generating large volumes of high-quality data. The facility’s capabilities were first showcased in the “1001 Phenomes Project,” a collaboration with the Nordborg lab, which uncovered growth patterns and genetic trait variations across thousands of Arabidopsis accessions. This work highlights PHENOPlant’s ability to transform large-scale experiments into actionable insights.
Paula Helfenbein, the Plant Care Specialist, collaborates with Sebastian Seitner, the Technical Specialist, to ensure optimal growth conditions for every project. "Healthy plants are fundamental to data quality," Helfenbein explains. PHENOPlant’s advanced systems– cameras, sensors, and automated components– require seamless operation. Seitner adapts and fine-tunes the technology to meet each study’s unique requirements. "Every project is different, and my job is to ensure the infrastructure delivers optimal results for both scientists at the GMI and for external collaborators," Seitner says. From hardware adjustments to specialized component design in collaboration with the Mechanical Engineering Center, Seitner ensures that PHENOPlant operates at peak performance.
Over the course of an experiment, PHENOPlant generates massive amounts and diverse types of data. Data and Image Analysis Specialist Selina Schöndorfer transforms the data into actionable insights. "PHENOPlant data tells a story," Schöndorfer explains, “ensuring researchers gain a deeper understanding of their results."
The PHENOPlant team has embarked on a new project with the Dolan group, studying Marchantia polymorpha. Unlike other plants, Marchantia requires a high humidity – 95%. These special conditions require software updates and system modifications. "Imaging Marchantia is also tricky," Helfenbein explains. “We place a blue cover over the soil to enable and enhance the foreground-background separation of the plants from their environment. Marchantia makes rhizoids, so it doesn’t form a root that grows through a single hole in the mat. We’ve had to rethink everything to suit its specific requirements," Helfenbein adds.
The project is far from straightforward, but the team thrives on solving complex problems. "This is exactly the kind of challenge PHENOPlant was built for," says Jez. "Watching the team adapt and innovate makes me proud. They don’t just solve problems – they turn problems into opportunities to improve what we offer."