The Molecular Biology Core Facility consists of three different components; two sub-cores and one pilot project. The two sub-cores include the RNA Bank and Characterization Facility and the In Situ Hybridization/Histology Facility. The first is responsible for obtaining, banking and characterizing RNAs from a series of brain tissues from both normal and schizophrenic brains, as provided by the Recruitment and Assessment Core. The RNA will be graded as to their quality by both Northern blot analysis and S1 nuclease analysis and then made available to the individual projects and other investigators according to their needs based upon the quality of the RNA and the requirements of the individual project. Care will be taken to match the investigators needs to the quality of the RNA to avoid the inappropriate use of extremely precious RNA from small human tissues. The In Situ Hybridization/Histology Core Facility will serve two functions, one as a focal point for the maintenance and dissemination of technology associated with in situ hybridization and histological procedures for the different projects, as well as for the provision of large quantities of sections from human material for the individual projects. It is anticipated that this facility will provide consultation for both experimental design, as well as execution, development and refining of new experimental procedures of importance to the individual projects outlined in the proposal. By concentrating this highly technical information in a small subset of people there will be continuity between the projects and will allow for better integration between a diverse set of programs. Finally, there will be a pilot project in an attempt to establish the feasibility of using plus/minus cDNA screening for identifying genes of """"""""importance"""""""" in schizophrenia based on differential levels of expression between normals and schizophrenics. The pilot will use two-dimensional gel electrophoresis to study the normal variations in proteins within a normal and schizophrenic subpopulation. The project was placed in the Moleculary Biology Core at the direction of the previous site visit group who felt that additional information was required prior to performing such complex studies on a poorly characterized population of schizophrenic and normal human brains. Overall, the support and preliminary studies outlined in this core facility should greatly enhance the ability of the individual projects to achieve their specific aims, as well as substantially reduce the research expenditures by centralizing these functions within this core facility.
| Fu, D; Skryabin, B V; Brosius, J et al. (1995) Molecular cloning and characterization of the mouse dopamine D3 receptor gene: an additional intron and an mRNA variant. DNA Cell Biol 14:485-92 |
| Landau, E M; Blitzer, R D (1994) Chloride current assay for phospholipase C in Xenopus oocytes. Methods Enzymol 238:140-54 |
