CORE FACILITY FOR THE VISUAL SCIENCES

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Twenty-eight principal investigators, conducting vision research at Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals of Cleveland, and the Cleveland Veterans Administration Medical Center have constituted a core group from the Departments of Ophthalmology, Genetics, Neurology, Neurosciences, and pathology at CWRU to develop multidisciplinary approach to examine major areas of study in the visual sciences: the CWRU Visual Sciences Research Center. The proposed NEI Core Facility will facilitate collaboration among this group of investigators that includes nine NEI-funded principal investigators and nine with pending or planned submissions. The Core Facility will be composed of three research support modules: 1. The Tissue Culture and Cell Analysis Module will assist investigators to establish and maintain a variety of cell lines, provide tissue preparation for histology, electron microscopy, and immunocytochemistry, and offer access to state-of-the-art facilities for flow cytometry, cell sorting, and confocal microscopy. 2. The Molecular Biology Module will provide skilled technical expertise, equipment and techniques for sequencing clone and amplified DNA, PCR amplification and analysis of DNA and RNA, quantitation and digital imaging of DNA gels, bacterial transfection and expression of proteins, and storage of commonly used bacterial strains, vectors, and cDNA constructs. 3. The Specialized Animal Resources Module will provide technical and handling support, isolation racks and cages, and boarding for the production of progeny of specialized mouse and rat strains that are relevant to studies of the eyes.