Bioassay Facility Core

University Of California, San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

ABSTRACT - BIOASSAY FACILITY CORE The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Environmental Research and Translation for Health (EaRTH) Center Bioassay Facility Core (BFC) provides enabling technology and expertise needed to investigate the links between environmental exposure and disease and advance environmental research across the EaRTH research community that advance EaRTH’s goals. In our first four years, a third of our members have used the BFC demonstrating our facilities filled a unique need at UCSF. Many interested researchers and clinicians who had yet to engage in environmentally focused science have now generated preliminary data as a direct result of the services, resulting in grant applications and manuscripts demonstrating our success. The BFC offers four key services: 1) Biomonitoring – measurement of chemicals in various samples (e.g. serum, plasma, urine, consumer products) using cutting-edge targeted and nontargeted approaches; 2) High-throughput environmental chemical screening – access to a vast library of chemicals and high-throughput toxicity testing in various organisms and cell cultures; 3) Human organoid production – creation of standardized human organoids for different tissues for environmental toxicity testing and pathway identification; 4) Proteomics and genomics support – a concierge service to aid researchers in study design and guide them to the appropriate existing facility to perform proteomics and genomic sequencing (including epigenomic) for incorporating ‘omics technology into their environmental health research. The Organoid Foundry and the Proteomics and Genomics Concierge Support are new services added at researchers’ behest to better serve their environmental research needs and will replace our previous Proteomics Core. Other updates include additional biomonitoring abilities by the Environmental Chemical Laboratory for PAHs in serum, replacement PFAS chemicals and cyclosiloxanes as well as metabolomic analysis that incorporates a large metabolomic library and EPA’s Chemical Dashboard of over 1 million chemicals. Screening capacity will continue to expand via new instrumentation for high content screening, enlargement of the environmental chemical exploration library and addition of collections featuring specific chemical categories (e.g. pesticides, tobacco/e-cigarettes, PFAS, PAH). The BFC has been invaluable to the EaRTH Center by increasing the access to environmental health science at UCSF and by acting as a hub for environmental science to foster collaboration and innovation. It has enabled researchers and clinicians new to environmental health to initiate research in the field as well as supported early-stage investigators by providing low-cost access to technology and expertise. Overall, the EaRTH Center Bioassay Facility Core is a unique and valuable resource that accelerates environmental health research at UCSF.