Core--Molecular and cellular imaging

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The Molecular and Cellular Imaging Core (MCIC) will be a local and regional resource for tissue-based image analysis. The MCIC will provide state-of-the-art facilities for qualitative and quantitative film densitometry and microscopic tissue analyses for investigators in the field of aging research. The MCIC will provide training to interested users or perform selected analyses of approved projects. Approved projects are anticipated from local and regional investigators. Applications for MCIC use will additionally solicited form aging-related scientists unbiased stereology, tiled mapping, and 3-D reconstruction. Tissue based techniques including quantitative receptor autoradiography and in situ histochemistry (ISHH) will be performed on a reviewed basis for aging-related projects. These types of analyses and techniques require expertise that may not be available to many laboratories involving in aging studies. Novel in situ hybridization probes and protocols will be developed, validated, and made available to local, regional and national investigators. In collaboration with the Microarray Analysis Core (MAC) and the Gene Expression Vector Core (GEVC) we will develop, validate, and provide five probes to cellular housekeeping genes for ISHH that can be used for validation of data obtained from microarrays. Oligonucleotide or cRNA probes to specific genes of interest to local, regional, or national researchers will be designed or cloned, to be of interest in human tissue or animal models of age-related diseases. These novel genes will be identified by microarray analyses or traditional methods of novel gene identification. As developed, our web site will contain a list of services and probes available to potential users and copies of all protocols for image analyses and ISSH.