When the Center for Biotechnology was formed in 1987 one of the first priorities was to develop state-of-the-art core research facilities that would provide the technical expertise and equipment needs of faculty, staff, students and Nebraska-based businesses on a service basis to conduct research in the field of biotechnology. These facilities continue to function with the goal of providing access on the UNL campus to state of the art scientific expertise and equipment that are too costly for individual scientists or businesses to have in the laboratories they direct. Another primary function of the facilities is to provide opportunities for educating students about the modern techniques used in the field of biotechnology.

Seven of the Center for Biotechnology Core Research Facilities are located in the Beadle Center for Genetics and Biomaterials Research. These are: Bioinformatics, Flow Cytometry, Genomics, Mass Spectrometry, Microscopy, Plant Transformation, and Protein. The Mass Spectrometry Core Research Facility is located in the Department of Chemistry in Hamilton Hall on the City Campus of UNL.

The primary goal of the managers in each of these core facilities is to serve the faculty, staff and students at UNL and Nebraska-based companies, while also maintaining an active research program. The technical experts in these facilities will work with scientists on an individual basis to customize the techniques to accommodate specific research endeavors. The Center welcomes collaborative research endeavors on specialized projects among the scientists in the Center for Biotechnology, who provide the technical expertise in the core facilities, and scientists in the various academic units at UNL and in Nebraska-based companies.