CORE--BIOSAFETY FACILITY

University Of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Facilities and Biosafety (Mark Karmer, Co-Facility Director; Ron Swanstrom, Ph.D.., Co-Facility Director) The goal of the Facilities and Biosafety Core Facility is to provide a safe, well-maintained, well-equipped research infrastructure that promotes efficient, effective collaborative cancer research. This Core Facility has two major components and two major objectives: Facilities. Directed by Center Administrative Director Mr. Mark Kramer, the Facilities component objective is to provide a cost-effective, well- maintained, and flexible research infrastructure for the Center's newly expanded 80,0000 net square foot laboratory and office headquarters building. The Facilities component: monitors and maintains common equipment; maintains the physical working environment; and oversees the computer network that connects researchers. In addition, this core provides technical training for researchers using sensitive common equipment, such as the Phosphor Imager and film developers. By helping to maintain the seven Lineberger Building based core facilities, this component serves a large proportion of the total membership. Biosafety Containment. Directed by Dr. Ron Swanstrom, the Biosafety Containment component's objective is to provide a safe, well-maintained space to work with hazardous and sensitive biological agents. In addition to contained laboratory space, this component offers training and supervision. The Biosafety Containment component also provides a molecularly clean environment for tissue extraction and preparation and templates for subsequent amplification using PCR technology. These functions provide essential working environments covering both, biological and molecular contamination containment for a variety of studies; ranging from work with human pathogens to ultrasensitive detection of rare genetic variants.