The Oklahoma Shock Nathan Shock Center is designed to deliver unique, innovative services that are not currently available at most institutions or at other Shock Centers. The focus of the Center is on the development of careers of young investigators but our services are accessible by the entire research community studying aging and Geroscience. The Oklahoma Shock Center is unique in that it focuses on the field of Geroscience and has institutional support from the three major research institutions in Oklahoma City: the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, and the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center. Over the past four years, more than 75% of the Pilot Grants awarded by the Research Development Core and almost 40% of all services provided researchers by the Research Cores have been provided to investigators at institutions other than the host institutions. The 2020 Oklahoma Nathan Shock Center has six Cores. The Program Enhancement Core oversees all the activities of the Shock Center and organizes the annual Oklahoma GeroScience Symposium, which provides travel awards to graduate students and fellows from other institutions to attend the Symposium. The Geropathology Research Resource in the Core provides investigators with pathological assessments of mice using the Geropathology Grading Platform. The Research Development Core is an innovative departure from the traditional structure of similar Cores in Nathan Shock Centers and is designed to provide unprecedented service to the scientific community throughout the nation. The Multiplexing Protein Analysis Core provides investigators novel mass spectrometry methods for measuring the abundance of proteins from any tissue/cell from any organism that has its genome sequenced. The Core can quantify panels of ~50 proteins in a single run. Using D2O labeling, the Core can also measure the synthesis and turnover of these proteins. In combination, these analyses facilitate interrogation of proteomic changes in pathways of importance to aging and Geroscience. The Genomic Sciences Core has developed assays to measure both the methylation and hydroxymethylation of DNA at specific sites in the genome, which will be available to investigators studying epigenetics of aging. The Core also offers researchers the comprehensive analysis of mitochondrial genome heteroplasmy (variants/mutations and deletions) and copy number as well as single-cell transcriptomics assays. The Geroscience Redox Biology Core provides investigators with measures of oxidative damage, redox couples, and mitochondrial function, which require specialized instrumentation and expertise. The Core also provides investigators with the latest technology to measure reactive oxygen species in vivo and in situ in tissues of rodents. The GeroInformatics Core provides investigators assistance in the analysis of large datasets, statistical support, analysis of high-throughput datasets including single-cell transcriptomic data and has developed unique bioinformatics tools and methods to assist investigators to discover new connections between their data and age-related phenomenon.
Aging is the major risk factor for the most economically expensive diseases afflicting the United States today. The Oklahoma Nathan Shock Center will focus on the newly-developing field of Geroscience with Research Cores that deliver unique, innovative services that are accessible to the entire research community studying aging and geroscience. The Research Development Core is designed to provide unprecedented service to the scientific community at large, not just investigators at the host institution.
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