INBRE: URI: CENTRALIZED RES CORE FACILITY

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. The RI-INBRE Centralized Research Core Facility is in its eight year of providing research and training support to the Network participants and the Rhode Island biomedical research community. During the current grant period more than 58 research groups have used the Facility, with an average quarterly cumulative frequency of 1,320 usages. The Facility users consisted of 32 faculty, 38 postdoctoral fellows, 90 graduate students, and 25 undergraduate students. Facility staff provided individual training and consultation to all users in order to better utilize the available technologies in various research projects. The staff continued to participate in teaching various techniques in the undergraduate and graduate laboratory courses offered by the College of Pharmacy. These courses are designed to provide both theoretical and hands-on experience to students using the Core Facility. In addition, hand-on instrument training workshops were organized in collaboration with the manufacturer's representative on automatic cell counting and transfection efficiency of GFP using Cellometer Vision and FLUOstar Optima multi-detection plate reader. The staff also conducted a two-day separation science workshop on the use of HPLC and FPLC for protein purification. Lectures, discussions and hands-on experience were provided to workshop participants. As part of the outreach initiative, the Facility staff visited RI-INBRE supported faculty and students at Salve Regina University and presented a seminar entitled "Technologies Available for Biomedical Research in the State of Rhode Island through RI-INBRE Centralized Research Core Facility". Also, students in a biotechnology course at Roger Williams University and the faculty instructor visited the Core Facility. The use of some of the key instruments in the field of biotechnology was demonstrated. New equipment acquired this year included the following: Shimadzu AXIMA Performance MALDI-TOF-MS/MS mass spectrometer, SpectraMax-M2 microplate reader, NanoDrop ND2000 UV/VIS spectrometer, and Thermo Multifuge centrifuge. Installation and training of MALDI-TOF-MS/MS is scheduled for April 2011. The software additions included: GraphPad Prism Scientific Graphing, and Canvas 12 Technical Illustration and Data Visualization. A total of 193 posters were printed, with only the non-RI-INBRE researchers paying a modest fee to cover the cost of consumables. The equipment and consultations were continued to be made available to the researchers at no cost and the usage has continued to increase.