The purpose of the Molecular Resource Core (MRC) is to provide support for the analysis of genes and gene products that are relevant to the pathogenesis of arthritis. It will support studies of immune-mediated arthritis in both humans and mice. The MRC will take a multifaceted approach in that it will develop new assays and procedures, be a source of well-characterized Collagen, provide analysis of samples under standardized conditions with stringent quality control, and be a technical and educational resource. MRC facilities will isolate and purify collagen and peptides. This protein family has many unique characteristics that make it difficult or impossible to obtain reliably from commercial sources. The MRC will use state of the art equipment for molecular analyses to aid in the development and application of the most advanced molecular techniques to the study of rheumatic disease. It will perform highly sensitive determination of mRNA levels by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction, including assisting investigators in the design of appropriate oligonucleotide primers and probe sets an. d will provide a standardized service for sample amplification, data collection and analysis. The MRC will aid both new and established investigators in the use of DNA microarray technology to discover new factors and genetic interactions that affect pathogenesis and modulation of disease. Since many rheumatic diseases are closely linked to particular MHC genes, it will provide HLA genotype determination to identify those haplotypes relative to disease with the capacity to perform fine specificity analysis down to the DNA sequence level. The availability of these services should facilitate research in rheumatic diseases for both clinical and basic scientists at the University of Tennessee, HSC.
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