Core Facilities

The School of Medicine and the Huntsman Cancer Institute have provided the support to develop a number of shared Core Facilities. These facilities provide a variety of advanced technologies and capabilities to researchers affiliated with the Program in Molecular Biology. A list of the Core Facilities presently in operation and a summary of their specific capabilities follows.

DNA and Peptide Facility
Fluorescent Activated Cell Sorter (FACS) Facility
2-D Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility
Cesium Irradiation Facility
Mass Spectrometry Facility
Cell Imaging Facility
DNA Sequencing Facility
Genomics Facility
Transgenic and Knockout Mouse Facility
Protein Interaction Facility
Electron Microscopy Facility
Microarray Facility

DNA and Peptide Facility

Robert Schackmann, Ph.D., Director, bob.schackmann@cores.utah.edu
The DNA and Peptide Facility provides a dependable, rapid, and affordable supply of synthetic oligonucleotides (DNA and RNA) and peptides, as well as protein sequencing for researchers at the University of Utah. These resources are essential tools of modern molecular biology and medicine. Access to these tools is essential for investigation and diagnosis of genetic alterations linked to transformed cell states and to many infectious diseases. Oligonucleotides are used in DNA sequencing, as polymerase chain reaction primers, for site-directed mutagenesis, and as probes for the identification of genetic information. Recently, modified oligonucleotides have been employed for anti-sense experiments with direct therapeutic possibilities. Synthetic peptides are a direct means of exploring the function of, or to generate immunological agents against, specific regions of proteins. Protein sequencing is done to confirm the identity of proteins or to identify regions of amino acid sequence in proteins of interest.

Fluorescent Activated Cell Sorter (FACS) Facility

Wayne Green, Ph.D., Director, wayne.green@cores.utah.edu
This facility offers cell sorting and quantitative fluorescent measurements. The equipment in this facility has just been updated with University funds and includes a new Becton-Dickinson Vantage cell sorter.

Biomolecular NMR Core Facility

Jack Shalicky, Ph.D., Director, shalicky@biochem.utah.edu
High-field NMR spectrometers are located in the Chemistry Department and the Health Sciences Center. Numerous instruments operating at 200 and 300 MHz are available for the routine analysis of synthetic products and for the structure determination of small molecules. In addition, the Chemistry Department has three Varian 500 MHz spectrometers, and the Health Sciences Center has Varian 600 and 500 MHz spectrometers. These high-field instruments have triple resonance and pulse field gradient capabilities. The instruments are therefore configured for optimum performance in experiments used to determine three-dimensional structures of proteins and nucleic acids.

Cesium Irradiation Facility

Raymond L. Warters, Ph.D., Facility Supervisor
The Irradiation Facility provides researchers at the University of Utah with a resource for the irradiation of most types of biological material. The facility includes a J.L. Shepherd and Associates Mark I, Model 30, 6000 Ci ¹³⁷Cs instrument, which permits irradiation of large samples such a multiple mice at a dosage rate as low as
0.5 Gy min^-1; small samples, such as cells or macromolecules in solution, can be treated at a dosage rate as high as 37 Gy min^-1. Thus the irradiator has a wide range of potential research applications.

Mass Spectrometry Facility

Chad Nelson, Ph.D., Director, cnelson@genetics.utah.edu
Mass spectrometers are located in the departments of Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry. Routine samples are run by facilities in both departments offering EI, CI, fast atom bombardment, electrospray ionization, MALDI, tandem MS, LC/MS and GC/MS services. Advanced instrumentation available for research in mass spectrometry includes five computer-controlled mass spectrometers in the department of Medicinal Chemistry which possesses an unusually diverse range of capabilities for studies of biological molecules; these include electrospray ionization, tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) and electrospray liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) instruments.

Cell Fluorescent Imaging Facility

Chris Rodesch, Ph.D., Director, crodesch@cores.utah.edu
The Cell Imaging Facility provides university and external researchers with state-of-the-art resources both for analysis of low-level fluorescent probes in living and fixed samples and for cell microinjection. Instrumentation provided by the Facility includes: 1. an array of conventional and confocal microscopes, each provided with stage adaptors for use with live cell cultures and coupled to sophisticated image acquisition hardware and software; 2. two automated cell microinjection units for cytoplasmic and nuclear introduction of dissolved substances into living cells; and 3. workstations for processing, analysis, and editing of still image and video data generated using either facility or external instrumentation. Sophisticated image acquisition and analysis regimes are possible, including time lapse, z-series, ratiometric analysis, and deconvolution, and customized automations can be developed to suit experimental requirements. Experimental design consultation and training for use of all instrumentation and software are available, and the Facility is open at all hours to users trained in instrument operation.

DNA Sequencing Facility

Helaman Escobar, Director, dna@cores.utah.edu
This core facility takes advantage of new technology developed by the Center for the Genome Project. The facility offers custom sequencing of single strand, double strand, and plasmid DNA, and the sequencing of PCR products using cycle sequencing with TAQ polymerase

Available Services
M13 template preparation
Single strand, double strand, and PCR products
Primer purification
Contig assembly
Consultation

Genomics Facility

Helaman Escobar, Director, dna@cores.utah.edu
A Genomics core facility has been established for use by University researchers to provide an accurate, cost effective, and reliable genotyping service for typing humanDNA samples. Genotypes can be generated automatically utilizing Applied Biosystems flourescence technologies and instrumentation that are currently in place.

Transgenic and Knockout Mouse Facility

Phil Clair, Manager, pclair@cores.utah.edu
The facility includes a micro-injection/surgery room, pathogen-free animal rooms, a tissue culture facility, and a molecular biology laboratory. The core offers technical assistance for blastocyst injection procedures and maintains all transgenic mouse colonies in an isolated section of the vivarium dedicated for this purpose. The core maintains a full complement of genomic libraries, selectable markers, and bacterial and phage vectors required for gene modification in mouse embryonic stem cells, and other rodent and human cultured cell lines.

Protein Interaction Facility

David Myszka, Ph.D., Director, dmyszka@cores.utah.edu
The Protein Interaction Facility provides investigators with easy access to advanced technologies used in characterizing binding interactions. Currently, a BIACORE 2000 optical biosensor is used to define the assembly state, affinity, and kinetics of an interaction. The advantage of optical biosensors is that they allow the real-time analysis of molecular interactions without labeling requirements. This makes the technology applicable to the study of a wide variety of biological molecules including proteins, oligonucleotides, oligosaccarides and lipids.

Electron Microscopy Facility

Kurt Albertine, Ph.D., Director, kurt.albertine@hsc.utah.edu
This facility provides a variety of state-of-the-art microscopy services to the basic science and clinical communities. The microscopy services provide investigators with a variety of light and electron microscopy capabilities, as well as image analysis (quantitative morphology). Technical services offered by the core include, light microscopy (brightfield, fluorescence, 3-D, etc.), transmission and scanning electron microscopy, histochemistry, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, laser capture microscopy, PCR, RT-PCR, in situ PCR/RT.PCR, and image analysis.

Microarray Facility

Brian Dalley, Director, brian.dalley@hci.utah.edu
The Microarray Core Facility provides Huntsman Cancer Institute researchers with a highly sensitive and comprehensive tool to discover differentially regulated genes. Microarray analysis can serve a very broad spectrum of biologic applications ranging from gene regulatory effects of artificially introduced gene alterations and pharmacological responses in cultured cells to genetic profiling of surgically removed human tumor specimens. Using our Gen3 Microarray Spotter allows us to analyze 4608 unique cDNA clones spotted in duplicate per slide. Our goal is to provide HCI investigators with sensitive and timely microarray comparisons of biologic samples related to cancer research. In addition to the Microarray Spotting and Scanning Instruments, the most critical resource for performing comprehensive microarray analysis is our expanding inventory of unique human cDNA clones. Currently our inventory holds more than 23,700 clones, representing approximately 18,000 unique genes.