Core-Immunology Core

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The Immunology Core will perform a vital role in coordinating the research activities of Project Leaders within the Program Project, "Host Defense Against HIV-related Pulmonary Infections". The mission of this Core is to supply state of the art techniques and procedures for the functional and morphological analysis of cells and tissues in the immune system, lung, and other organs in various models of infections. Quality control will be the first priority of this Core. The Core will administer, standardize, and perform daily analytical procedures to support ongoing research projects, and in addition, will develop novel assays to increase the flexibility of the Program Project-associated research. The specific objectives of the Immunology Core are: 1) to perform single and multiple color phenotypic and functional analysis of immune effector cells, memory cells, stem cells, and other types of cells and organisms by flow cytometry; 2) to perform sorting of cells by flow cytometry for isolation, enrichment, and cloning of cells with or without gene transfection; 3) to conduct analysis of inflammatory mediator profiles in biological samples by Luminex-based multiplex immunoassays; 4) to conduct analysis of gene and gene expression by real-time quantitative PCR or RT-PCR; and 5) to carry out histological, immunohistological, and functional analysis of cells and microbes by conventional, fluorescent, and confocal microscopy. The Immunology Core will serve as a base for technical training of personnel from each research component to use the facilities, procedures, and analyses employed by the Core. Professionals and specialists in the Core will also consult on data analysis and documentation in support of research in the Program Project.