The Flow Cytometry, Microscopy, and Imaging (FCMI) Core is a continuation from Phase-1 aimed at providing a wide range of biotechnology equipment and technical expertise to the COBRE junior faculty pursuing research on Dietary Supplements and Inflammation. The Core will provide state-of-the-art equipment to the Target and Pilot Project Faculty and their lab personnel for performing cutting-edge research in an accurate and timely manner that would lead to successful completion of their proposed projects. One of the focus of this Core is to provide multi-parameter flow cytometry and sorting services for phenotyping and isolation of specific cell types, determination of status on cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis as well as expression of signaling molecules and cytokines at the protein level in inflammation and following treatment with botanicals. The Core will also offer a range of imaging systems for live and fixed cells, tissues and organisms, including labeled and unlabeled samples. In addition, image visualization, data acquisition, processing and analysis that would meet the needs of the COBRE investigators are provided. Examination of structural changes that occur in response to inflammation, and how various dietary supplements induce alterations is critical to the understanding of the mechanisms of immune dysfunction, and development of therapeutic and preventive strategies. Specifically, the Core will provide imaging facilities for monitoring these changes at the whole animal to molecular level. This shared resource will lead to development of biomarkers for early detection and intermediate end points in the progression of the disease as well as response to therapeutic modalities. Furthermore, the instruments and expertise will provide specific and sensitive assay systems for determination of various molecular signaling pathways. At the whole animal level, ultrasound and fluorescence techniques are available to determine how inflammation and dietary supplements affect the experimental animals. The optical microscopy includes confocal and multiphoton microscopy for high resolution imaging of tissues to subcellular processes within tissues of interest. Finally, ultrastructural changes in cells will be imaged by electron microscopy to determine changes at the sub-micron level of resolution. A full range of image analysis hardware and software is also available to quantify the structural changes which occur during inflammation in the cells, tissues, and organs and how these changes are affected by the various dietary supplements. All equipment and technical expertise is available at USC SOM through outstanding institutional support. The Core faculty and staff will be available for assistance with experimental design, operation of equipment, and training on imaging instrumentation. In addition to individual interactions, didactic courses, seminars and workshops are regularly sponsored by the Instrumentation Resource Facility (IRF) at USC SOM, which will be made available to all members of the Target/Pilot Project Investigator laboratories.
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