The mission of the University of Pennsylvania Molecular Profiling Core is to provide quality services for molecular biology assays that are conducted with highly parallel or high-throughput technologies. These services include assistance with experimental design and resource assessment, sample preparation, assay performance, and data management and analysis. Professional laboratory technologists and bioinformaticists working as a team throughout an investigator's project provide these resources. The Molecular Profiling Core enables a wide variety of researchers to observe global nucleic acid patterns, including expression levels of all RNA transcripts in a sample, genetic variability throughout the genomic DNA sequence of an individual or population, and epigenetic modifications across the genome. These patterns, whether genome-wide or targeted to a specific set of markers, can be compared between control and treated/affected cell types in experiments that range from cell cultures to diagnostic or prognostic patient samples.
The Specific Aims are:
Aim 1 : To provide guidance and training on the capabilities, advantages, and disadvantages of various genomics protocols and analyses for musculoskeletal research through formal educational enrichment programs and one-on-one interactions.
Aim 2 : To provide expertise and service for whole-genome and targeted RNA profiling assays of musculoskeletal tissues.
Aim 3 : To provide expertise and service for whole-genome and targeted DNA profiling assays of musculoskeletal tissues.
Aim 4 : To provide bioinformatics services and training appropriate for analyzing the data produced in Aims 2 and 3.
Aim 5 : To provide funding for development of new assays, projects and collaborations and to facilitate development of preliminary and/or feasibility data for investigators.
Successful completion of these aims will significantly enhance the environment and the capabilities of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, leading to new approaches to address musculoskeletal disorders and new collaborations between Center faculty who may have not previously included genomics or other molecular profiling approaches in their musculoskeletal research programs.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 258 publications
