The grant application requests funds for the purchase of a Gilson SPE 215 automated liquid handling and solid phase extraction/high pressure chromatography system to facilitate the processing and analysis of biological samples by the Hypertension Center Assay Core laboratory at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WFUSM). Currently all sample handling and extractions are performed manually by the Hypertension Core personnel, under the supervision of Dr. Bridget Brosnihan. Given the large amount of samples and increasing demand for different RIA or ELISA procedures in various tissues, blood, urine and cell cultures that all require extensive extraction procedures prior to analysis, an automated handling and extraction system is necessary to maintain the precession, efficiency and output of the Hypertension Core Laboratory. Furthermore, the requested instrument allows for direct injection of extracted samples into a high performance liquid chromatography system (HPLC) for sample and assay validation. Although not routinely performed for each sample, HPLC verification of either individual or pooled samples ensures sample identity in immunological analysis performed particularly when combined with extensive extraction methods. This core facility provides support for 15 NIH-funded investigators holding 17 NIH grants and a P01 with 5 individual projects; over 90% of the samples submitted by investigators at WFUSM requiring this equipment are funded by NIH. The Hypertension Core Laboratory offers a low cost, multi-assay facility to investigators in a convenient on-campus setting. The addition of the state-of-the-art sampling/extraction/HPLC system will allow the Hypertension Core Laboratory to meet the increasing sample load and reduce the delivery time of data output to investigators. Therefore, the combination of high quality instrumentation, very-experienced personnel and solid financial support will ensure all NIH-funded researchers will benefit in time, quantity and quality with the acquisition of the proposed instrumentation.
