The University of Rochester EHSC supports a set of specific multi-user Facility Cores designed to furnish Center investigators with expertise, service, and instrumentation to enhance ongoing research programs and to facilitate both faculty interactions and new research endeavors. By meeting the needs of Center investigators in a consolidated fashion, it maximizes personnel effort and equipment utilization and, more importantly, it provides both service and research input that may be unavailable to the individual investigator. Dr. Ned Ballatori, Deputy Director of the Center, serves as the Coordinator of these Core Facilities.

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Pathology / Morphology / Imaging Facility Core

Objectives: This core provides professional and technical expertise in the design and interpretation of animal experiments with histology, immunochemistry, in situ hybridization, confocal and laser dissection, and morphometric components. The primary goal is to provide state-of-the-art equipment and expertise to EHSC investigators, to assist investigators in learning new techniques, and to develop new techniques for dissemination to EHSC investigators. Histopathologic changes often reflect direct or indirect effects of a substance under investigation. These effects are often of a nature that allows inferences to be drawn with respect to their underlying pathogenesis. Of equal importance in this evaluation is the recognition that such alterations may reflect secondary effects or complications, or even represent unrelated intercurrent or preexisting disease. This is especially important with the ever-increasing utilization of genetically modified mice, many of which have unique phenotypes. Consultations about such issues frequently result in active collaboration.

Gross, sub-gross, and microscopic observations of normal and abnormal specimens ranging from an entire transgenic mouse to specific tissues of interest are routinely prepared and examined in this Core. The Director, Dr. Baggs, is a veterinarian trained in both biochemistry and pathology, who can assist EHSC investigators in the selection of appropriate techniques and the interpretation of results.

There are four components of this Core:

• The main pathology/morphology laboratory, staffed by Ms. Linda Johnstone, supervised by Dr. Baggs;
• The molecular morphology laboratory specifically for in situ hybridization of frozen, paraffin and plastic-embedded specimens of soft tissues, staffed by Mr. Carl Johnston, supervised by Dr. Jacob Finkelstein,
• The immunostaining laboratory, staffed by Ms. Judith Cornejo and supervised by Dr. Pierce, and
• A hard-tissue (teeth, bone) histology, histomorphometry, and in situ hybridization laboratory, supervised by Dr. Brendan Boyce and his staff.

Confocal imaging services, which are staffed by Mr. David Pasternack and supervised by Dr. Baggs, are available to Center faculty through the Center’s University Facilities Core.

Biostatistics Facility Core

David Oakes, Ph.D. (Director)

Li-Shan Huang, Ph.D. (Co-Director, Clinical/Experimental Subcore)

Sally W. Thurston, Ph.D. (Clinical/Experimental Subcore)

Objectives: Many Center investigators rely critically on this core and strong collaborations have been established over the years with its members. The purpose of the Facility is to provide statistical and data management services to EHSC faculty, postdoctoral fellows and graduate students for research projects directed toward generation of preliminary data. Support is also provided for Pilot Projects, which frequently lead to submission of separate research proposals. Biostatisticians are also often involved in the preparation of grant proposals, and in assisting with projects conducted by Toxicology graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. They also support projects with limited funding and investigators who have experienced an interruption in funding. It is expected that individual grants originating from EHSC faculty will include support for any sustained statistical services.

The Biostatistics Facility Core is located in the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology (DBCB), which has a long history of collaboration with the EHSC. The Core provides support for the design, conduct and analysis of laboratory experiments and clinical studies. We also provide assistance with mathematical modeling of biological processes in environmental health. The DBCB has faculty and staff with expertise in statistics, data management, computing, protocol management and mathematical modeling. Following the recruitment of our new Chair, Dr. A. Yakovlev, and agreement by the University administration to substantial expansion of the Department, we are developing major expertise in the emerging area of Computational Biology. The specific activities and resources provided by the Biostatistics Facility Core include:

• Consultation with EHSC investigators on statistical and computing components of research projects. Examples in this area include advice on appropriate experimental design and sample size for clinical studies and laboratory experiments.
• Protocol development. Examples in this area include development of inclusion/exclusion criteria, definition of exposure and outcome variables for the study, determination of any required randomization/stratification schemes, and design of data forms. We can also develop and implement data management systems tailored to the needs of the laboratory/clinical study.
• Participation in the conduct of the study. Examples in this area include development of software for quality control and production of regular update reports and conduct of interim statistical analyses. On large ongoing projects, Biostatistics facility staff will participate in regular meetings to monitor study progress and to develop new and modified protocols to make maximal use of experimental findings.
• Analysis of completed studies. Examples in this area include statistical analysis, report writing and development of graphical displays for publication and presentations. Research in statistical methodology regarding the design and analysis of clinical studies and laboratory experiments. The experience of Biostatistics faculty in the field of statistical analysis of environmental studies allows the application of innovative statistical methodology to the design and analysis of laboratory experiments and clinical studies. An important component of our activity is assistance in the training of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows working on EHSC projects in statistical methods, the design of laboratory experiments, and the design of clinical studies.

Instrumentation Facility Core

Michael A. O’Reilly, Ph.D. (Director)

Robert Gelein, M.S.

• To provide essential analytic and molecular equipment to EHSC faculty.
• To provide technical services and support for maintenance and utilization of the equipment.
• To provide training for the use of equipment by Center Investigators and members of their laboratories.

The Instrumentation Facility Core provides access and expert technical help for large and/or expensive pieces of equipment that are typically impractical for individual laboratories to acquire and maintain.

Equipment within the Core includes digital image capture systems, gas chromatographs, high performance liquid chromatographs, UV-visible spectrometers, atomic emission and absorption spectrometers, fluorescence spectrometers, radioisotope counters, and luminometer. Both Departmental and Center grant funds are used to purchase and maintain these items, which are then made available to all Center members. All instruments are housed within Core laboratories and require use by a minimum of three investigators to be considered a shared Instrument.

Through a grant from Turner BioSystems, Sunnyvale CA, we have obtained a 2020n Luminometer, which will be available for use by members of the EHSC. A description of their grants program is at their Web site.

Inhalation Facility Core

Günter Oberdörster, D.V.D., Ph.D. (Director)	Jacob N. Finkelstein, Ph.D.	Patricia J. Sime, M.D.
Robert Gelein, M.S. (Operations Manager)

Objectives: The goal of the Inhalation Facility is to provide advice, guidance, training, instructions, instruments, and facilities for the design, implementation, and execution of animal studies that require the administration of solid, solute, or gaseous compounds to the respiratory tract.

This is a new Facility Core, which developed from a previous Shared Resource of the Center. Increasing use and demand for inhalation exposures required an expansion of this resource. To meet this demand, the University of Rochester School of Medicine provided laboratory space and funds for the construction of an animal inhalation facility in the new Medical Research Building (MRBx). This is a major institutional commitment to the Center in terms of both space (3,500 sq. ft. of state-of-the-art laboratory space), and resources ($1.7 million for building the facility).

The services provided by this core include making available to EHSC members inhalation (wholebody, nose-only or intratracheal), or instillation (intranasal or intratracheal) methodologies, including use of dry/wet nebulizers, suspensions, dilution systems, and particle and gas characterization systems. Single and repeated exposures over several days and weeks can be performed. Training is provided in the use of specific methods for analyzing responses of the respiratory tract, for example, lung lavage methodology and intratracheal instillation, and assistance with data analysis and interpretation is available to all Center members. If needed, new exposure systems and cages can be fabricated by the Core, and made available to Center investigators.

Compulsory training is provided to investigators, so that they will be able to conduct state-of-the-art inhalation exposures in the Facility Core, or in other laboratories. The Inhalation Facility is located in the basement of MRBx, and is composed of 11 rooms that have a total area of ~3500 sq. ft. The air supply system has a pressure gradient from the clean areas (e.g., animal housing, exposure rooms) to the adjacent main corridor. All rooms are equipped with exhaust vents providing flexibility with respect to changing them to exposure rooms as needed. The air provided to the facility is extremely clean, with less than ~50 particles/cm3, in contrast to office air with several thousand particles per cm3.

NeuroBehavior Facility Core

Troy J. Zarcone, Ph.D. Co-Director Specialty areas: behavioral pharmacology, motor performance quantification, learning assessment	Deborah A. Cory-Slechta, Ph.D. Co-Director Specialty areas: behavioral toxicology (metal & pesticides), developmental neurotoxicology
Bernard Weiss, Ph.D. Senior Advisor Specialty areas: developmental neurotoxicology, endocrine function, neurodegenerative processes
Hiromi Ishitobi, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow Specialty area: metal toxicology	Dena M. Carbonari, M.S. Laboratory Manager Specialty area: psychology

University Facilities Core

Jacob N. Finkelstein, Ph.D.
(Director)

Objective: This EHSC Facilities Core provides enhanced and subsidized access to facility cores that have been developed by the University of Rochester Medical Center. The University has provided both capital equipment costs as well as costs for technical and professional personnel and maintenance for these Cores. Because of the costs involved, such Cores would not be possible to develop using only EHSC resources.

These Cores are accessible to all University investigators; however, by subsidizing these facilities or providing funds for EHSC members to use these facilities, the EHSC is able to provide access for its faculty at a reduced cost. Further, this can be provided under the same operating principles that exist for other EHSC Facility Cores.

Thus, the goal of this Core is to provide Center members with access to a wide range of state-of-the-art technologies and methodologies that would not be possible to duplicate with Center funds or with limited individual research grants.

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The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) has created and heavily subsidizes numerous Core Facilities, including a Functional Genomics Center, the Transgenic Animal Core, the Flow Cytometry/Cell Sorting Core, the Imaging (Confocal and EM) Cores and others. The goal has been to make expensive and rapidly developing technology and associated expertise readily available to URMC faculty.

Both the Transgenic Animal Core and the Functional Genomics Center are supported in part by funds from URMC to maintain lower user fees, and URMC funds also support technology development within these Cores.

These University-based facilities are available to EHSC investigators through the University Facilities Core of the Center. In the case of the Flow Cytometry/Cell Sorting Facility and the University Morphology/Imaging Facility, use by Center faculty has become extensive, and we expect our use of these Facilities to increase in future years.

Because of this heavy utilization and to partner with the University for the overall success of these cores, it has become advantageous for the Center, in terms of both accessibility and cost for EHSC faculty, to contribute to the operating costs of these facilities. At present, the Center University Facilities Core contributes directly to the operating costs of only the Flow Cytometry/Cell Sorting Facility and Morphology/Imaging Facility but includes additional funds for use of other cores.

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Copyright 2008 University of Rochester Medical Center, Dept of Environmental Medicine.
Revised March 13 2008 (vgl/gbi)