Roche c501/e411 Autoanalyzer for CTSA Core Resources at Penn and CHOP

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Clinical and translational science is a major focus for the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) and Children's' Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Indeed, the Penn/CHOP CTSA has catalyzed major institutional investments in translational research through the Institute of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT), the academic home of the CTSA. A major transformational mission of ITMAT/CTSA is to provide cost-effective and efficient services for research sample processing, storage, and assaying through the Translational Core Laboratories (TCL). A key TCL service has been autoanalyzers exclusively focused on research needs that cannot be met by Clinical Pathology including batch analysis of small sample volumes and optimal multiplexing. The TCL has used a Roche Hitachi 912 autoanalyzer for research-focused biochemical analyses - however, the Hitachi 912 is now an aging platform and will not be supported by Roche after the end of this calendar year. In this Shared Instrumentation Grant proposal, we seek to replace this platform with a Roche Cobas c501/e411 biochemical/immunochemical autoananlyzer. This analyzer will (a) increase capacity while using similar reagents (thus ensuring continuity for ongoing projects), (b) extend analyzer services to include a much broader array of multiplexing options which is critical to this research community (limited sample resources is the norm), and (c) meet an increasing demand for these service. We present five major users projects to illustrate the unique importance and reach of these services to clinical and translational research across Penn/CHOP and beyond - projects span pediatric to adult research, K-23 to U01 awards, and include mechanistic clinical trials, community translational research, and epidemiological studies. We emphasize, however, that this analyzer will be used by over 40 NIH-funded investigators for specialized research applications that cannot appropriately be met by Clinical Pathology or by alternative methodologies. Provision of research oriented, high-quality, accessible and cost-effective autoanalyzer services is critical to the biomedical research goals of Penn/CHOP and their CTSA-related partners as well as to the larger NIH mission to enhance clinical and translational research nationally.