Core Services

The Center for Biomedical Research/Research Centers at Minority Institutions Core Facility enhances multidisciplinary research infrastructure for Tuskegee University investigators by providing the resources, services, and technical support required by the interdisciplinary nature of biomedical research. The Core Facility achieves this primary goal by providing instrumentation and personnel in two Cores. Several subunits in Core I are being assembled and will be completed during the next funding cycle of the TU-RCMI.

TURSUF provides management of the resources, and safeguard that completion of proposed objectives is not hindered by a lack of appropriate laboratory resources, TURSIF’s main core services is subdivided into 2 units: (1) Morphological and Microscopy Unit and (2) Molecular Unit. The two units are further subdivided into subunits: (1a) Digital Imaging-Microscopy and Morphometry Subunit, (1b) Confocal and Deconvolution Subunit, (1c) Electron Microscopy Laboratory Subunit, and (1d) Morphological Services Subunit; (2a) Molecular Laboratories Subunit, (2b) Cytometry Laboratory Subunit, (2c) Biochemical Laboratory Subunit and a (2d) Cell Culture Laboratory Subunit.

(1a) Digital Imaging-Microscopy and Morphometry Subunit: The Imaging Facility is housed in the Carver Research Laboratory Building. It operates as a multidisciplinary core research resource for use by all interested University personnel. The Facility is under the direction of Dr. John W. Williams and employs one full-time specialist, Ceyla Davis. The director and research specialist have training and skills in both transmission and scanning electron and light microscopy.

(1b) Confocal and Deconvolution Subunit: The Imaging Facility contains light microscopes providing capabilities in both upright and inverted microscopy utilizing brightfield, phase contrast, differential interference phase contrast, and fluorescence optics. Dark field and polarizing microscopy are available in the upright mode. The microscopes are equipped with 35 mm, video, and/or digital cameras. The digital cameras are directly interfaced with a Macintosh G4 Computer running Photoshop 7 and The Image Processing Toolkit (Dr. John Russ, NC St. U.). Appropriate scanners and printers are integrated. A Kodak Gel Documentation Station has been added and provides 1D gel analysis. There are two photographic darkrooms associated with the Imaging Facility.

The Imaging Facility houses two electron microscopes: a Philips 505 Scanning Electron Microscope and a Philips 201 Transmission Electron Microscope. Other ancillary equipment includes two DuPont Sorvall MT2B ultramicrotomes a Tousimis Shadowcaster Vacuum Evaporator (with a rotary shadower and a sputter coater), a Tousimis Samdri Critical Point Drier, and two LKB glass knife makers. This laboratory is the most complete and extensive imaging facility on campus and, as such, provides core research facilities and technical assistance to investigators from many academic and research disciplines.

(2d) Cell Culture Laboratory Subunits are under current development and organization. Temporarily, equipment supporting these services is housed at several locations, but accessible to investigators. New organization will be posted when completed.

Core II: Infrastructure development in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (CBB) computerlab

Core II, CBB Core, is part of the Core Resources at the Center for Biomedical Research (CBR) at TU. The goal of CBB is to continue strengthening the optimal use of computational resources and information technology (IT) by RCMI researchers at Tuskegee University (TU) to address health disparities in underserved communities. The CBB multidisciplinary faculty and staff at Tuskegee University’s Center for Computational Epidemiology, Bioinformatics & Risk Analysis (CCEBRA) and its counterpart, Biomedical Information Management Systems (BIMS) provide services and training in computational biology, bioinformatics, experimental design and statistical analysis to the RCMI researchers and the biomedical research community at TU. Of central importance is the fact that the CCEBRA research team is supported by BIMS strong IT team. The BIMS team provides all IT needs of the RCMI researchers at TU including the RCMI web page at TU, development of online application and different database management. The team also provides technical support and training for both hardware and software as well as troubleshooting. classroom

1) Sponsor bioinformatics and related workshops to train scientists, graduate-students and undergraduate-students to become competent in the use of computational biology and bioinformtics resources that are available at the CBR at TU. This includes accessing, searching and extracting data from national and international bioinformatics databases, genomics facilities and sequencing facilities.

2) Increase the CBB resources selectively to create sustainable research capacity and state-of-the-art professional development support for RCMI scientists and other researchers;

3) Promote collaborative research among RCMI scientists at TU as well as at other institutions. Active collaboration with the RCMI-Translational Research Network (RTRN) is most important in this arena. This includes providing a common data management and application development framework, with a robust services-oriented-infrastructure that standardizes and streamlines the RCMI’s researcher community collaborations; and

4) Create a telehealth/ telemedicine infrastructure at CBR to address health disparities in the BBC of Alabama.

3) IT support.
Specifically, services being provided by CBB to TU researchers include:

2. Provide biostatistics consultation to RCMI researchers
3. Database development: a) Outcome assessments tool development from the database development to the analysis. b) Back-end interfacing to data processing systems and displays c) Privacy protection and security assessment
4. Web based software tools: a) Web interface b) Website development, hosting and maintenance b) Search engine development and management c)Webpage statistics
5. Workflow technology: a) Network security and monitoring b)Systems design and development, and testing and deployment of collaborative technologies
6. Training and workshops related to CBB: a) Seminar and Workshop Series. b) Participate in Bioinformatics webinar series in collaboration with RCMI Translational Research Network (RTRN) Bioinformatics working group c) Consultant epidemiologic services to investigators in the areas of Cancer, HIV/AIDS, and other infectious diseases.
7. Videoconference: a) Two pilot Internet Telemedicine/Telehealth centers have been set up: a) The first center is with Montgomery Aids Outreach Inc., where two Apple laptop computers were provided for use in providing services to their clients (like: education, counseling) and to facilitate remote meetings connecting their main office to their branch offices which are located in different counties and are apart more than 45 minutes. The second center is based in Macon County and we have provided one Apple laptop computer; b) Currently we host the TU’s teleconference for the Morehouse/TU/University of Alabama at Birmingham cancer research project held twice a month
8. Other basic services: a) Consultation regarding software, hardware and accessories; b) Quality control of the core lab computers; and c) Troubleshooting of networks, PC’s, Mac’s, and Servers.
CBB:

facilitate advice, leadership, integration/coordination and management for bioinformatics capabilities at TU in the area of the Genomics, Proteomics and Metabolomics (-omics) platforms;

Genomics processes include: a) assembly; b) annotation; c) mapping; d) searching; e) non-coding RNA; f) disease association; g) comparative genomics; h) new tools for alignment; i) phylogenetics; and j) visualization.
Transcriptomics processes include: 1) similarity searching and clustering; 2) alternative splicing; 3) annotation; 4) gene expression and statistical analysis; 5) Small RNA gene identification; and 6) visualization.
Proteomics processes include: a) peptide mass fingerprinting analyses; b) custom protein datasets; and c) visualization.

develop and provide high-level bioinformatics capabilities and services, including the storage, management, curation, integration and collaborative annotation of -omic data, generated by TU researchers;
ensure best practice in bioinformatics and statistical analysis of all research data, and the transfer of technology and skills into the application of research in the area of health disparities;
establish and consolidate links with RTRN/RCMI institutions and with other major bioinformatics centers and programs; and
leverage TeraGrid resources: This team will train faculty and staff so they can tap into the ample resources of TeraGrid. TeraGrid is an open scientific discovery infrastructure that combines leadership and enterprise-class resources at eight partner sites to create an integrated, persistent computational resource. TeraGrid integrates high-performance computers, data resources and tools for high-end experimental facilities around the country. These integrated resources include more than 102 teraflops (i.e., 1012 or trillions) of computing capabilities and more than 15 petabytes (quadrillions of bytes) of online and archival data storage, with rapid access and retrieval over high-performance networks. Through the TeraGrid, researchers can access over 100 discipline-specific databases. With this combination of resources, the TeraGrid is the world's largest, most comprehensive distributed cyber-infrastructure for open scientific research.