Abstract
The New York University Langone Medical Center (NYULMC) has committed $15 million to ensure that researchers have access to cutting edge enabling technologies. The Office of Collaborative Science enables access to expertise and technology through the centralized administration of Shared Resource Centers. In partnership with the NYU Cancer Institute, Center for AIDS Research and Clinical and Translational Science Institute, we strive to increase collaboration among clinical, translational and basic scientists to support novel science and to classify and treat diseases not just by their phenotype, but also by their molecular profiles. Here we highlight several Core Resource Labs that support translational research at NYULMC. Human biospecimens are essential validating mechanistic insights into biological processes gleaned from cell lines, animal models of disease, and epidemiological studies. The availability of well-annotated human biospecimens is a critical link between basic science and translational research. The NYULMC Tissue Acquisition and Biorepository Core provides investigators with freshly acquired frozen, normal, and diseased tissue at the time of surgery, as well as pathology-archived, formalin fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens, from appropriately consented patients. The Immunohistochemistry and Histopathology Cores closely interface with the Tissue Biorepository, providing the means for clinical and basic research collaborations and the microscopic analysis of clinical research specimens. The Genome Technology Centers sequencing and microarray units are dedicated to RNA-seq of cancer patient transciptomes, array expression profiling and SNP genotyping, enabling translation research as well as the preparation of nucleic acids for molecular profiling, mutational analysis and microRNA screens. The RNAi Core provides an integrated, state-of-the-art, RNA interference (RNAi) based high-throughput screening (HTS) and offers siRNA/dsRNA screening libraries for the cross-species functional characterization of whole genomes in a systematic, comprehensive, and cost effective manner.