The Molecular Biology Core is dedicated to provide cost-effective access to tools and services common to most applications of modern molecular biology, and to provide training and technology to exploit a variety of more advanced gene discovery and analysis methods. The principal services offered are DNA sequencing, oligonucleotide synthesis, gene expression profiling, and laboratory automation. The application of molecular biological approaches has become essential for understanding the mechanism of glucose homeostasis and the still poorly elucidated pathophysiology of adult onset diabetes. In addition, molecular tools have already played an essential role in identifying some of the factors contributing to the immunological derangements responsible for the inception of the beta cell destruction underlying juvenile diabetes. However, the application of the tools of molecular biology increasingly requires the mastery of a broad spectrum of technologies. As investigators have turned to comprehensive methods to study gene expression patterns, new needs have been exposed for data reduction services, consultation, and experimental design. These services typically require the participation of highly skilled (and compensated) staff with backgrounds in engineering and applied science or the physical sciences. As the scope of study has increased, the capital needs for infrastructure have also risen. Individual laboratories rarely have the resources to assemble the instrumentation needed and to maintain the technical expertise to support continuous operation. Equally, they rarely have a need for exclusive access to instruments of this productivity. In addition to making available the approaches in use for expression-based discovery of gene products and their interactions, the Molecular Biology Core will, by consolidating the intellectually broader user base of the diabetes research community with the very high volume of activity ongoing in the Department of Molecular Biology, afford substantial incremental savings for Center-affiliated investigators for reagents and services, such as the provision of synthetic oligonucleotides, automated DNA sequencing, and colony picking and DNA arraying.
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