Research Resources

In addition to equipment available in individual laboratories, students have access to several core support facilities, described below. Some of these facilities are directed or advised by Neuroscience Program faculty; for example, Dr. Lehman, the Program Director serves on the advisory committee for Microscopy and Imaging Core Facility in the Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy. These cores generally operate on a fee-for-service basis.

Students have access to two molecular biology core facilities, one associated with the Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy in the Vontz Center, the other supported by the College of Medicine in MSB. These cores offer a variety of services, equipment (thermal cyclers, oligonucleotide synthesizers, DNA sequencers) and instruction. A high-quality monoclonal antibody facility centered at Children's Hospital Research Foundation is available to researchers and trainees. A protein chemistry facility in the Department of Pharmacology features amino acid analyzers and sequencers, peptide sequencers, and HPLCs for peptide purification. In addition, a Microscopy and Imaging Core Facility in the Department of Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy features two transmission electron microscopes, several Nikon light microscopes with Spot camera digital imaging capabilities, and a Zeiss LSM 510 laser confocal microscope and associated computer image analysis hardware and software. The Microscopy Core is located in the Vontz Center and is in routine use by many Neuroscience program faculty.

An exceptional opportunity for students is provided by facilities and resources for the production and characterization of transgenic mice. The UCMC is among the top institutions in the country for research involving transgenic mice. Two core facilities, for introducing transgenes by pronuclear injection or homologous recombination in ES cells, are located in the Department of Molecular Genetics. Neuroscience faculty and trainees have been taking advantage of these resources and are currently using transgenic models in many of their individual research projects.

Finally, the College of Medicine has recently established state-of-the-art interactive core facilities in functional genomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics. These cores build upon and complement our already existing network of highly successful cores, including transgenic and gene knockout core facilities, as well as cores for DNA sequencing and NMR structure analysis, genetic epidemiology, and statistical genetics. The Genomics Expression Core provides gene expression profiling services using cDNA microarrays printed on glass slides. Although at present the Core only offers mouse and human microarrays, in the future it will also offer microarrays of other species as well as arrays of investigator-derived differentially expressed sequences. The Proteomics Core Facility uses MALDI-TOF and Q-TOF mass spectrometers to allow for protein identification of genes already in the database, as well as rapid amino acid sequencing, identification of post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation and acetylation, identification of protein-protein interactions, protein turnover rats and polymorphism information. The Bioinformatics Core facility enables researchers to analyze the large numbers of sequences and genes identified by the genomics and proteomics technology. Gene-prediction and gene-expression data are assembled for use by investigators as a hypothesis-generator for follow up studies using conventional genetic, biochemical and pharmacologic analyses to assess the functional significance of the different gene products and proposed regulatory pathways. Faculty and trainees have access to each of these facilities on a fee-for-service basis.

The College of Medicine houses a medical library within the Medical Sciences Building. The collections in the Medical Center Library offer over 220,000 items including journals, monographs, audiovisuals, rare books, interactive videodiscs, and electronic databases. The library offers access to over 25 databases in the life sciences, nursing, toxicology, cancer, education, business and the health care industry; access to the University of Cincinnati Library Information Database (UCLID), OhioLINK (the Ohio Library Information Network) and Internet resources; instructional workshops designed to teach effective utilization of library resources. Directly across the street from the MSB is the History of Medicine library, a unique source of original volumes, many relating to neuroscience.