The Health Science campus of the University of California at San Francisco is one of the foremost centers of Biomedical research in the world. Its Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry and Nursing employ several hundred outstanding investigators who have an exceptional record in achieving NIH awards. The UCSF campus is served by a state-of-the-art biotechnology core facility, the Biomolecular Resource Center (BRC). The BRC has served the UCSF campus since 1985, and fulfills investigators needs in DNA and peptide sequencing and synthesis. It is housed in 1,700 square feet of renovated laboratory office space. Over 225 principal investigators have used the facility in the last year. Over 190 PIs have had approximately 13,000 DNA templates sequenced. In other services, approximately 140 PIs have had 3,500 oligonucleotides synthesized, approximately 30 PIs have had 115 peptides synthesized, and 25 PIs have had 90 proteins sequenced. The facility is overseen by a Board of Overseers; Dr. Daniel Santi is the Facility Director. Dr. Kathryn Ivanetich, the Associate Director oversees the day-to-day scientific, financial and administrative aspects of the BRC. Funding is requested for an Applied Biosystems 377XL sequencers and Tecan SpectraFluor fluorimetric plate reader. The DNA sequencer is needed to replace an 8 year old sequencer (originally purchased as an ABI 370A) that has become extremely reliable. The fluorimetric plate reader is needed to automate template quantification, which strikingly improves sequencing success rates. The requested instrumentation would provide for more rapid delivery of higher quality DNA sequencing results at lower cost to campus investigators. This request is supported by 25 UCSF Principal Investigators with considerable, ongoing PHS/NIH grant support. The PIs represent 11 departments at UCSF, i.e., Anatomy, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Medicine, Microbiology, Neurosurgery, Pathology, Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmacology, Physiology, Stomatology and Surgery, plus the Cancer Research Institute, the Cardiovascular Research Institute and the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology. The requested instruments would be truly shared resources. No single investigator, group or investigators or department would dominate the use of these instruments.
| Ivanetich, Kathryn M; Yan, Wilson; Wunderlich, Kathleen M et al. (2005) Automated template quantification for DNA sequencing facilities. J Biomol Tech 16:248-55 |
| Miller, Joseph D; Weber, Dominique A; Ibegbu, Chris et al. (2003) Analysis of HLA-E peptide-binding specificity and contact residues in bound peptide required for recognition by CD94/NKG2. J Immunol 171:1369-75 |
