Services

The Institut de la MEr de Villefranche (IMEV), formerly known as the Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche-sur-Mer (OOV), is located on the Ligurian coast between Nice and Monaco in the bay of Villefranche which is known internationally for its richness of offshore pelagic organisms. IMEV was formerly a small research marine station. established in 1885 by Alexis de Korotneff (University of Kiev) and Carl Vogt (University of Geneva) in buildings leased from the Russian Navy. Since the 1930s, the facility has been administered by the University of Paris. Today, IMEV is composed of two joint laboratories (LBDV: Developmental Biology Laboratory and LOV: Oceanography Laboratory) and has become a world-renown research and training centre in marine ecology, oceanography and developmental biology, with about 200 staff on a 10,000 m2 campus. It is jointly operated by the Sorbonne Université (SU) (ex-UPMC), the French partner of ASSEMBLE Plus, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). IMEV operates and maintains one of the three longest-running deep marine environmental monitoring stations in the world, and an important long-term pelagic observation programme. IMEV’s research topics include developmental biology, pelagic and coastal oceanography at regional and global scales, biological and biogeochemical cycles in marine environment, carbon cycling, phytoplankton production and biological diversity of zooplankton communities.

Ecosystem Access: Groups the seagoing (“moyens a la mer”) services of the three marine biological stations. Each station has a diving team with scientific background, several small boats, and one >10 m coastal research vessel with crew, the latter operated by the French Oceanographic Fleet (FOF), in coordination with EMBRC-France. “Moyens a la mer” offers the expertise and equipment of diving teams and oceanographic vessels for accessing the ecosystems and marine organisms located nearby the three biological stations. Altogether the ecosystems and biological resources accessible present a high diversity, ranging from Atlantic to Mediterranean habitats, including a megatidal system and deep / open ocean environments related to the presence of near-shore canyons at two of the locations. The three >10m coastal research vessels operate up to 20 miles offshore, whereas the 7 smaller boats allow the versatility required for near shore sampling and experimentation. All three stations are involved in EMOBON project and therefore follow its standardised protocols.

Biological Resources: Groups the collection of wild organisms from the coastal ecosystems near to the stations, the access to unique microorganism collections (Roscoff Culture Collection with more than 6000 strains, Banyuls Bacterial Culture Collection with bacterial strains of bioprospecting interest, the Mediterranean Culture Collection of Villefranche, specialized on dinoflagellates, and the collection of mutant strains of diatoms), a biobank of fixed strains (the Center for Planktonic Collections de Villefranche) and the rearing of aquatic organisms in experimental conditions (aquaria, mesocosmos, etc.), including the whole life cycle of many aquatic model organism. 

Technological Platforms: These offer access to a suite of cutting-edge instruments specialised (but not restricted to) the analysis of samples of marine origin. The service includes sequencing/genomic analysis (Genomer, Bio2Mar), imaging (PIM, PIQ, MerImage, BioPIC) and structural analysis (Bio2Mar, CrystalO, Metabomer). Equipment includes Sanger and next generation sequencers, qPCR, optical and electron (SEM/TEM) microscopes, flow cytometers (FCM), cell-sorters (FACS) quantitative imaging devices, gas and liquid chromatography (GC, HPLC) and a variety of mass spectrometers (GC-MS and LC-MS), and an X-ray diffraction system. Technical staff provide expert advice and assistance for sample preparation, analysis and data processing steps. The equipment and the expertise of the scientific-technical staff allow the identification, isolation and characterisation of compounds produced by marine organisms; the genotyping of marine organisms; studies on biodiversity based on genomic or image analysis; studies on the development of different marine organisms.

Hosting services: The external visitors have access to working (office, laboratory space, meeting rooms) and living (hosting and catering) spaces for facilitating their presence on the stations.

Bioresources available

• Biobanks (On-site and remote service)

  • > 20000 planktonic samples from worldwide & Tara expeditions (Ocean, Med, PolarCircle)

• Marine model organisms (On-site and remote service)

  • A large range of Metazoan Marine model organisms such as:

    • echinoderms (e.g. Paracentrotus lividus),

    • tunicates (e.g. Phallusia mammillata, Ciona intestinalis, Botryllus schlosseri),

    • the cephalochordate Branchiostoma lanceolatum,

    • cnidarians (e.g. Pelagia noctiluca, Clytia hemisphaerica).

• Culture collections (On-site and remote service)

  • Mediterranean Culture Collection of Villefranche (MCCV): collection of microalgae including the toxic dinogflagellate Ostreopsis isolated from the Villefranche Bay

• Species collected upon request (On-site and remote service)

  • Marine fauna and flora in situ Villefranche bay (chaetognaths, ctenophores, siphonophores..)

Support offered

Scientific and technical support will be provided already at the preparation of the proposal to be presented in each TA call, in order to suit the user’s needs.

The potential users will be supported from the beginning by the Access Managers to:

• 1) identify the services more suitable to their needs,

• 2) identify the scientific-technical contact that would contribute in the preparation of the proposal, and

• 3) support the user in the presentation of the request.

Once the access request is accepted, the Local Access Officer will support the user from the logistic and administrative point of view, providing the information for reaching the station and tracking the documents that will allow the presence of an external user in the station (host agreement, badges, etc.).

During the project execution, the user will have continuous technical and scientific support. The possibility of being hosted in the station, supported by the Hosting services, boosts the interaction with the larger scientific and technical community of researchers at the station.

Modality of access

The user would have access to:

• 1) a wide range of microorganisms of aquaculture interest, both as feed for larval stages or filter feeding aquaculture organisms, and as a source of compounds of interest (such as omega-3, vitamins, pigments, etc.);

• 2) organisms of interest for aquaculture production, such as macroalgae;

• 3) aquaculture facilities of different scales (from aquaria to mesocosms) and circulation systems;

• 4) and analytical platforms on-site that allow an immediate, almost real-time analysis of the experimental set-up.