Firefly Shared Instrument Grant

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is in response to RFA PAR-07-105: Shared Instrumentation Grant Program. Stanford has been a leader in the development of new technologies for the analysis of the genome and proteome including pioneering the development of recombinant DNA, the discovery of flow cytometry and the design of DNA, RNA and protein microarrays. The aim of this proposal is to further build upon Stanford's outstanding Immunology and Cancer Center Core Facilities programs that are integral to basic, clinical and translational research programs by providing a novel, state of the art technology for performing nano-scale proteonomic analysis. Firefly is a fully automated, rapid quantitative protein analysis apparatus that incorporates isoelectric focusing with antibody detection to measure specific protein abundance and modification. This new method provides unparalleled ability to bring quantitative protein analysis for the dissection of complex biological problems as well as the examination of human clinical specimens. In this proposal, two major themes should be apparent. First, that the intention of this grant is to make Firefly available to a large community of investigators that have a mutual interest in the development of nano-scale proteonomic analysis in the fields of Immunology and and/or Cancer Biology; and with a commitment to scientific and conceptual interactions amongst basic scientists and physician scientists. [unreadable] [unreadable] Relevance: our projects will integrate an understanding of the mechanism of action of therapeutics [Felsher, Robinson] with new mechanistic insight into pathogenesis of disease states [Herzenberg, Steinman, Nolan, Mitchell], characterize the role of stem cells in diseases [Jeffrey, Chang, Sage] and develop novel diagnostic tests [Felsher, Robinson]. Our work involves the analysis of clinical material from preclinical animal models [Felsher, Sage] and human patients [Felsher, Mitchell, Jeffrey]. Our proposal thus thematically resonates with the greater vision of our Dean of Medicine [see letter, Dean Pizzo], who has reorganized Stanford around broad themes that integrate basic and clinical sciences around institutes that encompass immunology, cancer biology, neurosciences and cardiopulmonary biology. Our proposal will bring together two of these research communities: Immunology and Cancer Biology with guaranteed support of from the Stanford Immunology Transplantation and Infectious Disease Institute [see letter, Mark Davis] and the Cancer Center [see letter, Beverly Mitchell] through the Immune Monitoring Core [IMC], as directed by Dr. David Hirschberg. A vital additional component of our program involves the integration of data through support from Bioinformatics [see Letter, Amar Das]. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]