This application seeks continued support for the UAB Neuroscience Core Center which is currently entering its' tenth year of providing service and training to the UAB neuroscience community. This Center will add innovative new core research facilities while maintaining the productive resources present in existing cores. The principal focus of the UAB Neuroscience Core Center will be to facilitate cost-effective, innovative and interdisciplinary neuroscience research in areas pertinent to the NINDS mission. Genetic, molecular, cellular and behavioral approaches are used by a group of 17 NINDS supported scientists with a total of 19 R01 projects. The qualifying projects have increasingly relied on shared core facilities and the collaborative UAB scientific environment to accomplish their research objectives. The proposed Cores complement each other and provide advanced technical expertise that will result in exciting new collaborations. The Behavioral Assessment Core (Core A) provides both service-oriented behavioral phenotyping and research staff training to investigators using rodents. New facilities for optogenetic stimulation during behavioral/cognitive testing will be added along with semi-automated home-cage testing. The Molecular Detection and Stereology Core (Core B) will continue to offer sensitive, standardized immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization technologies. The utility of this core will be enhanced adding facilities for quantitative stereology. Focus on protocol development and investigator training will transfer these methods to individual investigators The Vector and Virus Core (Core C) will accelerate genetic and biochemical studies of NINDS investigators by providing lentiviral and AAV viruses for optogenetic probes, provide services for CRISPR/Cas 9 mediated gene editing and continue to provide services for protein interaction studies. Although there are commercial sources for some of the services proposed, it should be stressed that an important aspect of the UAB Cores is that, being on site, consultation is continually available and accessible even after the service is provided. The Administrative Core (Core D) will provide administrative and scientific leadership. Collectively, the Cores promote multidisciplinary collaboration, exchange of information and technological advances. The Core Center attracts new investigators to neuroscience research, develop collaborative research activities with other institutions and increase the quality and productivity of funded research projects in a cost-effective manner
NINDS-funded UAB investigators conduct research on the causes, prevention and treatment of neurological disorders. The UAB Neuroscience Core Center provides support for these programs, thereby increasing the productivity of these researchers and enhancing the impact of neuroscience research.
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