The quantitative assessment of gene expression is a cornerstone of modern biology. The advent of real-time PCR has tremendously facilitate this process by providing greater accuracy and time savings, as well as reducing the risk of communication. The goal of this application is to obtain funding for real-time PCR instrumentation within the Agee- Women Research Institute. Over the past 8 years, the MWRI has grown substantially in the number of investigators and NIH funding. Currency, MWRI members hold 31 NIH-funded grants totaling over $7,300,000 per year. We have a cadre of research using cutting-edge molecular biology techniques. Unfortunately, researchers frequently must travel to other university laboratories for the necessary instrumentation or use older technology to conduct their research. With this explosion of researchers and projects within the MWRI, we now have a need for immediate access to real-time PCR. Most of the investigators at MWRI will use the instrumentation to candidate differences in gene expression in various research paradigms related to pregnancy, development, infections, and in vitro modeling. Both human and animal tissues will be analyzed. In addition, direct genomic analyses such as determination of gene copy number will be preformed in ovarian cancers that are resistant to chemotherapy. Another application will be analyses of genetic polymorphism in women with preeclampsia. Members of the departments of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, Pediatrics and Pathology are represented in this application. Thus, the proposal real-time PCR machine would be core facility utilized by many NIH- funded researchers.
| Laivuori, H; Gallaher, M J; Collura, L et al. (2006) Relationships between maternal plasma leptin, placental leptin mRNA and protein in normal pregnancy, pre-eclampsia and intrauterine growth restriction without pre-eclampsia. Mol Hum Reprod 12:551-6 |
