RADIOIMMUNOASSAY/BIOMARKERS CORE: Director- M. Reilly The RIA/Biomarkers Core supports the overall mission of the Penn Diabetes Research Center (DRC) to prevent, treat, and cure diabetes mellitus by providing an assay service that has proven essential for diabetes-related research in the DRC. Under the leadership of Drs. Muredach Reilly and Heather Collins, the Core has evolved from a facility that used to be focused mainly on rat and human Insulin, glucagon and C-peptide to a diverse, high-volume and cost-effective service. 100 different diabetes and endocrinology-related markers can be assayed. We believe that performing a large number of radioimmuno-assays and ELISAs in a central core facility rather than in scattered locations throughout the University represents a significant overall savings in equipment and also provides results with better quality. The increase in assays reflects the expansion of diabetes research into the areas of gut hormones, inflammation and obesity and the increased interest in metabolism by the Penn scientific community. Parallel to this increase in assays, the Core has also experienced more investigators using its services. We utilize a charge-back system to recover the cost of the assays and our charges vary from $1.25 to $8 per sample, which are among the lowest of all DRC. The Vision for the RIA/Biomarkers is consolidation and expansion of services through integration with other NIH-cores at Penn, development of new services while enhancing overall quality, and reaching out to a greater number of Penn and Philadelphia diabetes and obesity research investigators. Thus, RIA/Biomarkers Core is a valuable and integral part of the future operation and development of the Penn DRC.
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