This application for an NIDDK Biotechnology Center represents a natural confluence of several strong research communities at the University of Washington. This proposal brings together an already established I gene microarray facility under the direction of Dr. Roger Bumgarner, with investigators at the cutting edge of research in the areas of initiation of diabetes and its complications, control of the immune response, regulation of cell proliferation, cell hypertrophy, and cell migration in renal injury, hepatocyte regeneration after injury, intestinal development, and hematopoietic stem cell biology. An overriding aim of this center is to develop a working gene chip containing all of the known sequence verified genes of the mouse genome, which can be utilized by investigators in the above areas. We anticipate this approach will particularly benefit investigators utilizing marine systems bearing transgenes, genetic deletions, or controllable genetic mutations in purified cell populations or specific organ systems to study mechanisms of disease. We concurrently seek to develop stringent approaches to data generation and analysis that will increase the amount and establish the validity of the information that will be obtained as the result of application of gene array approaches to our disease models. This will be accomplished through the following four specific aims: 1 ) Expand the collection of clones available for construction of arrays by acquiring Unigene sets of mouse cDNA clones and additional human cDNA clones; 2) Increase the throughput and data storage capacity of the array facility; 3) Implement and integrate our data analysis with an expression database; 4) Test and implement protocols for RNA and signal amplification.
