Nutritional Physiology – Experimental Platforms


Energy metabolism and methane emission measurements in farmed and laboratory animals

  • Energy conversion and methane emission measurement in respiration chambers for large animals (cattle, pigs)
  • Respiration chambers for laboratory animals (mice, rats)
  • GreenFeed system for methane measurements of cows in free stall barns

Balance tests

  • Facilities for conducting nutrient balance tests on cattle, pigs and chickens

Chromatography techniques

  • GC-FID (e.g. volatile fatty acids, alcohols)
  • GC-MS (e.g. long-chain fatty acids, glucose)
  • HPLC (e.g. amino acids, peptides, sugar alcohols)
  • Thin layer chromatography (e.g. preparative isolation of lipids)


Stable isotope techniques

  • Working with stable isotope labelled nutrients or metabolites to quantify nutrient and energy metabolism in vivo
  • Using natural isotope abundance (13C, 15N, 18O, 2H) range to track nutrient metabolism
  • Elemental analysis – isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) to quantify 13C, 15N abundance in feedstuffs or tissues
  • Gas chromatography combustion-IRMS to measure isotopic enrichment of individual substances (e.g. 13C abundance in fatty or amino acids)
  • Gas bench-Continous Flow-IRMS to measure 13C or 18O abundance in breath gas-CO2 or 2H and 18O abundance in biological liquids (e.g. plasma, saliva)
  • Molecular mass spectrometry (GC-quadrupole-MS in EI, PCI or NCI mode) to track nutrients or metabolites in plasma, urine or tissue (e.g. glucose, keto acids)


Clinical chemistry

  • Measurement of enzyme and substrate concentrations in blood and urine by means of automated spectrophotometry (e.g. NEFA, glucose)

Cell culture

  • Primary culture of neurons
  • Neuronal cell lines

Protein analytics

  • 2D gel electrophoresis
  • Receptor binding studies
  • Western blot
  • Immunoprecipitation
  • ELISA


Absolute and relative quantification of gene expression

  • Real-time PCR