The Analytical Core was set up in 2006 with the financial assistance of Phase I of the COBRE program. From its inception, it was designed primarily to assist with liver-related medical research and as such needed to support both quantitative genetic and quantitative biochemical, pharmacological and toxicological research. Pursuant to this goal the Core offers the following services: (1) it maintains and operates, on a fee-for-service basis, an array of modern instruments ranging from qPCR instruments (quantitative genetic-analysis) to multimode plate readers (quantitative biochemical analysis) to mass spectrometers with attending chromatographs (PK/PD assays, metabolic/metabolomic analysis). (2) It provides clients with expert advice and hands-on training in any or all of the strategies and instrumental techniques offered by the Core. Currently the Core Director Dr. Robert Winefield, is the Core's only employee, but he benefits from the guidance of an advisory committee comprised of three highly experienced current or former directors of academic and commercial bioanalytical laboratories. During Phase III, the Core will seek both to update its foremost instruments and to transition from being wholly dependent on COBRE to being self-sufficient, relying on basal- support from the University and user fees. Accordingly, this unique core laboratory, with the potential to support a far wider research community than was originally intended, will ensure its long-term viability.
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