The primary expertise of Monell investigators spans a wide range of disciplines, including human sensory physiology and psychophysics (Drs. Breslin, Cowart, Dalton, Lundstrom, Pelchat, Mennella, Wysocki. Yamazaki. and Zhao), mouse and/or rat genefics (Drs. Bachmanov, Reed, and Tordoff), molecular biology (Drs. Brand, Margolskee, and Huang), and animal chemosensory physiology (Drs. Beauchamp, Lowe, Margolskee, and Reisert). Most or all of these research programs use DNA or RNA analysis methods at various fimes, but these methods often lie outside their area of expertise. This Core will serve to remove barriers from the invesfigators'use of these techniques. For instance, transgenic mice used by laboratories that study mouse behavior and physiology need to be genotyped to ensure that they are of the correct group (e.g., knockout or wild-type), but the invesfigator has no training in genotyping methods. Therefore, it is useful for the investigator to have a technician available who has been rigorously trained by experts to perform this work, to make use ofthe equipment available in the Core. Thus, not all people who study genefically engineered mice need to have all the equipment to genotype mice in their own laboratories. Likewise, invesfigators doing human sensory work might like to know their subject's genotype for key sensory polymorphisms (e.g., is the person homozygous for certain alleles associated with bitter taste blindness?). Again, this is often outside the expertise of their laboratory, but by working with this Core they can receive appropriate training and readily collect these data. Thus, this Core will provide a centralized common resource and reservoir of experience in genotyping and DNA/RNA analysis that would be inefficient to replicate in each individual laboratory. The availability of Core services extends the capabilifies of the participafing laboratories beyond what each could do individually.
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