The goal of the Facilities and Biosafety Core Facility is to provide a safe, well-maintained, well-equipped research infrastructure that promotes efficient, effective collaborative cancer research. This Core Facility has two major components: Facilities and Biosafety. The Facilities component provides two major oversight services, including responsibility for: (1) oversight of common equipment and training users of common equipment; and, (2) building operations and renovation/repair. The Biosafety component provides a safe working environment and appropriate training for members who need to work with hazardous infectious agents. Services include providing containment space for researchers working with primate lentiviruses (HIV-1 and SIV), to provide containment space for the propagation and purification of infectious DNA clones, to provide containment space for researchers working with human tumor tissue, and to provide containment space for a DNMPCR clean working environment for the processing of tissue samples prior to PeR amplification. Highlights of research supported by the Biosafety component : the use of human thymus cultures to explore questions of HIV-1 pathogenesis (Lishan Su), the analysis of human and macaque blood plasma samples to examine the natural history of HIV-1 and SIV during primary infection (Ronald Swanstrom), and the study of the pathogenesis of herpesviruses in HIV-1 infected patients (Jennifer Webster-Cyriaque).. The Facilities Component services the 80,000 net square foot Lineberger Cancer Center Building, which houses about 55 faculty investigators,/projects, nine core facilities, and common equipment and space, and Administration. The Facilities component helps the Center maintains over 450 pieces of equipment in 23 common rooms. This dual component shared resource makes possible a safe, well-maintained, and efficient research facility. The Biosafety Containment component is essential to investigators working with biohazardous materials and is not readily available elsewhere.
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