application): The Amino Acid Core Laboratory at Vanderbilt University was established in 1975 as a joint facility supported by the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) and the Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC). The GCRC provided space and professional guidance (Dr. William Lacy), while the DRTC and GCRC jointly provided salary and supply support. In 1984, the Section of Surgical Sciences at Vanderbilt contributed to the further development of the Amino Acid Core laboratory by purchasing new equipment. The Core was organized under the direction of Dr. Naji Abumrad with special emphasis on the use of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to assay amino acids. Dr. Lacy served as a consultant during this period. Over the next few years, new equipment was acquired and methods were developed in response to user demand for the measurement of a variety of labeled and unlabeled amino acids. With Dr. Lacy's untimely death in 1987, and the appointment of a new director of the GCRC, the Amino Acid Core was moved to space within the Section of Surgical Sciences. In 1984, the Vanderbilt CNRU joined the newly reorganized Amino Acid Core laboratory. In 1990, Dr. Paul Flakoll, Assistant Professor of Surgery, was appointed as director of the laboratory. Therefore, over the past 23 years the Amino Acid Core laboratory as evolved into a joint endeavor between the CNRU and the DRTC. This has resulted in greater efficiency, the offering of a wider range of services, and considerable financial savings. During its history, the core has progressed from a laboratory with two primary services (full amino acid profiles and alanine specific radioactivity) and three primary investigators to a laboratory with seventeen different services and sixteen investigators. Therefore, the core laboratory remains as a highly utilized and active component of the CNRU.
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