The laboratories of the Core-Center are uniformly technologically sophisticated and automated. Further, the faculty are engaged in a broad range of approaches, from molecular biology to cellular neurophysiology to behavior and perception, and utilize a variety of animal subjects as well as humans and patients. These attributes form a common need for technical services across the Core-Center. The Research Services Core (RSC) provides four sets of key services. Each operates in complementary partnerships with other NIHsupported Centers and Programs, and with the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy. This structure ensures the highest quality of services and facilities possible, while maximizing efficiency and economy. The Histology &Imaging Unit provides tissue preparation, image analysis and reconstruction technologies, An additional component is an Imaging Facility that includes digital and wet darkrooms that facilitate transforming research findings into figures and images for publication and teaching tools. All investigators in the Co re-Center that use animals have a need for histological services, and yet the need does not justify full-time commitments. A collective solution is ideal. The Electronic and Mechanical Shop provides essential services to all labs, given the common requirement for equipment repair and maintenance overtime, and modifications and construction of electronic and mechanical components and devices on a semi-regular basis. The Shop exploits modern automated design-build technologies routinely. New faculty have expanded cellular-molecular-genetic levels of inquiry within the CNCS, and these approaches entail the use of mouse and other rodent models, including mutant and genetically engineered populations. A new Animal Research Unit assists CNCS investigators using rodents with purchasing, husbandry, recordkeeping, and basic physiologic and diagnostic screening in support of their research goals. The new Proteomics Unit offers modern protein analysis technology and services, from design and consultation to purification strategies for proteins of interest and clinical sample analysis. The Unit also assists Pis in the preparation of materials mass spectrometry. The Units of the RSC provide sophisticated services across the Co re-Center that are well suited for a common and centralized structure and function. This Core offers a high quality and accessible set of services to CNCS faculty that enhances the productivity of our research and stimulates interactions across laboratories. The attractive environment produced in turn catalyzes technological and scientific collaboration, and attracts new investigators to our labs and research goals.
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