The objective of this core is to provide diagnostic services, patient specimens and clinical data in support of each of the projects. The core will be comprised of the director, the laboratory manager, and one technician. At each patient encounter, various specimens will be collected and transported to the laboratory. Each specimen will be aliquoted for diagnostic testing and for distribution to appropriate investigators. Samples to be collected include urine, blood, vaginal lavage, saliva and a self-collected vaginal swab. Not all samples will be collected at each visit. Diagnostic assays that will be performed include ligase chain reaction (LCR) on the urine samples for the detection of C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhea, trichomonas cultures on self-collected vaginal swabs; and chlamydial serologies on sera. Urine will also be aliquoted and stored to provide material for sequencing of the chlamydial omp1 gene as part of Project 2 (Batteiger). In addition to diagnostic serology, blood collected will be used to isolate lymphocytes for T-cell proliferation assays in support of Project 3 (Fidel). The vaginal lavage samples will be collected for Project 3 and shipped in accordance with Dr. Fidel's specifications. Gonorrhea isolates will be collected and stored for batch shipment to Dr. Apicella (Project 5).
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