Environmental Factor – May 2019: Core day highlights a range of NIEHS resources

Would you like a glimpse into the inner workings of the cell? Have you ever wondered how CRISPR genome editing technology works? Want to learn more about animal studies at NIEHS? These are some of the questions that posed researchers to Rodble Hall on April 3 for NIEHS Primary Day.

More than a hundred researchers browsed the posters displayed at the annual event, snacked on cookies and soda while stopping to speak with representatives from 18 different basic laboratories (see sidebar) at the institute. These facilities provide state-of-the-art equipment and valuable experience to in-house researchers.

EXPERIENCE AND EFFICIENCY

The basic facilities have enabled researchers to conduct new lines of investigation that they may not have attempted before, due to lack of time, resources, or expertise.

said Robert Petrovich, PhD, event organizer and director of the Protein Expression Core Facility. “Because cores have their own budgets, they also increase research resources.”

Petrovich, center, took a break from submitting his poster to compare notes with Jeffrey Kohn, PhD, left, and Olivier Lardinoy, PhD, right, of the Mass Spectrometry Research and Support Group. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

“The primary day is about sharing information about the many essential services at NIEHS available to support our research community,” said Paul Deutsch, deputy scientific director of the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety. “It’s a great opportunity to interact directly with core managers and employees to learn about what cores do, what technologies are used, and whether someone’s research needs can be helped through a core.”

Technology at their fingertips

Deutsch pointed out that it is difficult to compete with the breadth of services provided by the basic facilities in most university research centers. These services continue to expand as technology and scientific knowledge advances.

For example, Mario Borgenia, PhD, directs a facility dedicated to cryo-electron microscopy (EM), an increasingly popular technique used to map the structure of proteins at the level of individual atoms. When the facility opened less than two years ago, it was the first of its kind in both North and South Carolina.

Borgenia, right, and fellow librarian Sharon Capel discussed the cryo-EM facility. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

The latest addition to the core NIEHS suite of facilities is the Ideas and Innovation Space. “Hopefully this will become a big deal here,” said James Honeycutt Jr., who became director of the future facility at the end of March. “There are a lot of people here with a lot of ideas. If you can take those ideas and flesh them out, and give researchers a way to channel their ideas into the physical world, that could be groundbreaking.”

Hunnicutt, right, shared his enthusiasm for the new manufacturing space with Greg Solomon, director of the Epigenomics and DNA Sequencing Laboratory. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

Ian Chen, MD, PhD, a fellow in the National Toxicology Program’s Stem Cell Toxicology (NTP) group, paused to show Hunnicutt a picture of a device he hopes they can create together. Chen wants to use the device to grow tiny spheres of cells that he uses to test for chemical toxicity. The New Zealand company that made the device has discontinued it, so Hunnicutt hopes the in-house facility will help him replace the supply.

(Marla Broadfoot, PhD, contract writer for the NIEHS Office of Communications and Public Liaison.)

from San Jose News Bulletin https://sjnewsbulletin.com/environmental-factor-may-2019-core-day-highlights-a-range-of-niehs-resources/