This application requests funds for the purchase of a Genetic QP-21 Qpix robotic colony picker equipped with a re-arraying and replication package. The advantages of this type of instrument are currently unavailable at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. This bench top instrument is capable of aseptically picking greater than 3,000 bacterial colonies or viral plaques from agar surfaces and transferring them to 96 or 384 well microliter plates. The instrument is capable of re-arraying positive clones from fifteen 96 or 384 well plates into 96 or 384 well plates. This instrument will be incorporated into the Molecular Recognition Unit (MRU). The MRU is an established university shared resource that is supported by NIH Cancer and Molecular Toxicology Center Grants and institutional funds. The MRU's primary function is the production and characterization of monoclonal antibodies and phage- displayed and soluble recombinant antibodies for research, diagnostic or therapeutic use. Members of the MRU, the departments of Microbiology and Immunology, Medicine, the Cancer Center, the Center in Molecular Toxicology, and the newly establishes, university funded DNA Micro array Core will utilize this instrument. Projects supported by this instrument will address studies involving signal transduction, vascular biology, neuroscience, virology, oncology and toxicology. Major users will benefit from this instrument in studies to determine the functional pharmacogenomics of human P450 enzymes; or will utilize the instrument through the MRU to develop antibodies to identify radiation- induced cell surface antigens, to identify viral antigens and cell receptors and to detect damaged DNA (DNA adducts). Minor users will utilize the instrument to analyze c-DNA libraries, re-array bacterial clones for the production of DNA micro arrays or utilize the MRU to obtain recombinant antibodies to novel antigens on an occasional basis.
