) The Analytical Laboratory Shared Resource (ALSR) was set up in 1990 to facilitate collaborative cancer research in molecular epidemiology, nutrition, food chemistry, carcinogenesis, and other areas of interest at the Center. The mission of this laboratory continues to be the cost-effective provision of accurate chemical analyses and a base for consultation related to the determination of molecules relevant to research interests of Center investigators. The facility is centrally located on the 5th floor of the CRCH and is equipped with modern, state-of-the-art instrumentation required for analytical chemistry and handling of biologically and chemically hazardous materials. Assays established by the ALSR for services include analysis of micronutrients (carotenoids, vitamins, and others), various clinically relevant analytes (HDL- and LDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, homocysteine, creatinine, total nitrogen, and others), and specific phytochemicals (caffeine and its metabolites and a wide variety of flavonoids, isoflavonoids, and other phenolic agents). These compounds are measured in body fluids, tissues, foods or other matrices. Major equipment of this facility include one fully automated liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) system, two fully automated gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) systems, three fully automated high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) systems with photo-diode array (PDA), fluorescence, or electrochemical detection systems, and spectrophotometers. This Shared Resource has operated at 100 percent of its capacity and provided instrumental support for projects of eight Investigators with peer-reviewed grants. The usage of this facility is expected to increase drastically within the cycle of this proposal due to the availability of the recently obtained LC/MS and GC/MS equipment. These new additions are suitable to be used in current and planned CRCH projects and offer great potential because new analytes can be determined that were not measurable previously, including markers of oxidative damage (isoprostanes, oxidized metabolites of vitamins and other phytochemicals), peptides, proteins, nucleotides, and other molecules.
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