Islet Procurement and Analysis Core (IPA): Project Summary/Abstract The Islet Procurement and Analysis (IPA) Core was established in 2007 as a result of growing demand for murine islets from multiple members within the Vanderbilt DRTC. Over the last funding cycle, the IPA Core provided services to 56 different investigators (49 Vanderbilt and 7 External Non-Profit) by assisting with 2981 procedures. Islet biology, development, and function in normal homeostasis and disease including a broad spectrum of islet-related processes raging from intracellular signaling, physiological response and adaptation, the immunology of type 1 diabetes, the function of islet-enriched transcription factors in development and maintenance of normal hormone-secreting status and cell fate, all the way to islet transplantation, are major research areas of the Vanderbilt DRTC. An essential component supporting the experimental pipeline of the majority of studies falling under this paradigm is our ability to isolate high quality, well-characterized rodent pancreatic islets, and then to perform complex assays of islet function. In addition, the core provides VDRTC investigators with high-resolution imaging solutions that allow bulk-tissue-imaging and fine-detail quantitative assessment of pancreatic islet morphology. Utilizing whole-slide imaging technology, the IPA Core recently developed and published standards for automated measurement of beta cell mass, and this technique is now broadly used by VDRTC members. In this cycle of competitive renewal, the throughput of procedures and number of services under the IPA Core are expected to more than double as part of the newly established Quality Control Core Facility (QCCF) for the NIDDK-supported Integrated Islet Distribution Program (IIDP), which distributes human islets nationwide and internationally from six US-based islet isolation centers. This novel and essential QCCF program centered within the IPA Core will utilize the robust infrastructure, services, and expertise of the IPA Core and directly benefit eleven VDRTC members who already use human islets from IIDP in their research. Through its standardized assessment of human islet function, cell composition, and islet health, the QCCF and IPA Core will build, together with the IIDP, a database of well-characterized human islet preparations from normal pancreas donors that will be an exceptionally valuable resource for the field. By having a centralized facility, the IPA Core provides VDRTC investigators with high-quality data of standardized islet assessment by procedures using established SOPs, optimized over the last decade for reproducibility and time effectiveness, balanced against maximal data output and at a lower price than would otherwise be possible.
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