The goals of the COBRE Center for Applied Immunology and Pathological Processes are to establish a nationally recognized advanced research and training program in immunology and inflammation and to facilitate the development of junior faculty research programs to achieve major independent research funding. High capacity multi-analytical flow cytometry and microscopy are critical research tools for immunological studies, however, generating high quality, reproducible data requires extensive expertise in protocol development. The development of Core C, the Immunophenotyping Core, will serve as a Shared Resource Laboratory by providing COBRE investigators access to technical expertise to take advantage of existing state-of-the-art immunophenotyping technology currently available at Louisiana State University Health Science Center-Shreveport. Core C personnel will have expertise in a range of experimental techniques in the field of immunophenotyping such as multianalyte extracellular and intracellular flow cytometry, multi-analyte bead arrays, super-resolution fluorescent immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridizations. Core C personnel will work closely with COBRE investigators to optimize experimental design, develop immunophenotyping protocol, execute immunophenotyping experiments, and analyze data. Thus, Core C will be a conduit between COBRE PI laboratories and the LSUHSC-S Research Core Facility, allowing these laboratories to extend their research into the fields of immunology, inflammation and infectious disease more quickly than if these labs attempted to perform these techniques themselves. The development of Core C will advance individual COBRE investigators projects while enhancing infrastructure of local immunology and inflammation research, thus benefiting the whole institution.
