FA 5 Progress Report WV-INBRE - Joan C. Edwards School of ...

Program Director/Principal Investigator (Last, First, Middle): Rankin, Gary O 79SHARED FACILITIESWVU Flow Cytometry Core FacilityThe WVU Flow Cytometry Core Facility provides instrumentation and scientific support for cell analysis andsorting. The facility routinely performs analysis of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells for expression ofintracellular and extracellular proteins, cell cycle, cell quantitation, cytokine production, and cell sorting basedon antigen expression or cell cycle. The facility is currently equipped with two cytometers, a BectonDickinson (BD) FACSAria and a BD FACSCalibur. The FACSAria is a 15 parameter (13 fluorescent markersand two scatter parameters) high-speed bench top sorter capable of sorting cells into 4 different populations.Using a grant from the WV-INBRE, the Facility will purchase and install a biological safety cabinet (BSC) thatis specially designed for the sorter prior to April 30, 2012. The BSC will replace the current aerosolcontainment system and enable the Facility to sort infectious agents or cells of human origin under BiosafetyLevel-2 conditions, which has become the recommended standard for these activities. The dual laserFACSCalibur is capable of 4-color analysis and is equipped with a sample autoloader. In addition to the twocytometers, the facility has a Miltenyi Biotec AutoMACS and tissue culture hood for sterile magnetic cellsorting. The facility has auxiliary laboratory space with appropriate equipment to train personnel and supportthe needs of researchers. The Flow Cytometry Core has several software packages including FCS Express,CellQuest Pro, ModfitLT and BD Diva software for data acquisition and analysis. It also has two separateanalysis workstations with 2 print quality color laser printers. The facility is managed by the technical directorKathleen Brundage, PhD who has training from BD biosciences and many years of experience with flowcytometry. She oversees the day-to-day operations of the facility, operates the FACSAria for cell sorting,provides necessary instrument and software training, and consults onexperimental design and data analysis. The facility is house in an approximately 750 sq ft lab space locatedon the 2nd floor of the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center North building.Users Unique # Fees Charged Fees Paid by CenterFaculty/Post Doctorate/Staff Sometimes NoGraduate Students No NoUndergraduate Students No NoWVU Genomics CoreThe WVU Genomics Core Facility offers full-service gene expression profiling and DNA sequencing for allinvestigators in West Virginia. For researchers without expertise in these laboratory-based techniques, thecore provides full gene expression services, including RNA purification from provided tissue samples,assessment of RNA quality, amplification (if necessary), probe synthesis and labeling, array hybridization,and multi-level bioinformatics analysis. This breadth of service provides accessibility to gene expressionprofiling for many different types of investigators. For investigators more adept at molecularcharacterizations, a limited subset of these assays could be performed by the core facility personnel.Similar varied service levels are offered for DNA sequencing. The Director and Laboratory Manager forMicroarray/Gene Expression are available prior to the start of experiments to ensure that appropriate designmeasures are included for statistically significant microarray findings. The Co-Director and LaboratoryManager for DNA Sequencing provide technical and bioinformatics consulting for users of those services.Interactions between investigators and the core staff through every step of the design and execution of theresearch study will facilitate better and faster scientific discovery and make these core services far moreconvenient and effective than commercial vendors. The core facility also assists investigators in placingdatasets into public databases and maintains these datasets on Genomics Core Facility servers for accessby the scientific community at large.Users Unique # Fees Charged Fees Paid by CenterFaculty/Post Doctorate/Staff No NoGraduate Students No NoUndergraduate Students No NoPHS 2590 (Rev. 06/09)Continuation Format Page