Molecular Biology and Genetics Core

1988. When this core was initiated, our main purpose was to support cloning and sequencing efforts of Liver Center Investigators. With the advent of PCR, the focus of the Core switched to production of high quality oligonucleotide primers and TAQ Polymerase. 1993. cDNA microarray technology was in its early stages of development. Realizing the impact that the cDNA approach to transcriptiome analysis would have on scientific investigation, the emphasis of the Core was focused on bringing cDNA microarray technologies into active use in the Liver Center. The Molecular Genetics Department took a leading role in developing one of the first cDNA microarray facilities in the country that produced high quality microarrays at a very reasonable price for AECOM Investigators. The Molecular Biology and Genetics Core was the first facility at Einstein to offer a full service for cDNA microarray technology that also included bioinformatics assistance. 1998. A state of the art computer workstation with all available programs for processing genomics transcriptome data was established and maintained by the Core Manager. cDNA microarray or Affymetrix oligonucleotide arrays were being utilized by at least 13 Liver Center Investigators. These included the laboratories of Drs David Shafritz, Mariana Dabeva, Mark Czaja, Leslie Rogler, Charles Rogler, David Cohen, Sanjeev Gupta, Liang Zhu, Robert Burk, J. Roy-Chowdhury, Luciano Rossetti, Michael Lisanti, and Irving Listowsky. 2002. The emphasis advanced beyond the mechanics of doing cDNA microarrays toward quantitative real-time PCR with the purchase an ABI Prism 7000 Sequence Detection System. This has become a workhorse machine for Center Investigators to confirm microarray data and analyze gene expression. Drs. Charles Rogler, Tatyana Tchaikovskaya and Mr. Christopher Plescia invented RNA expression microarray (REM) technology. REMs are a reverse microarray that spots cDNAs from many tissues on a single slide and can be used to assay the expression of a test gene across up to 1000's of tissue cDNAs on the slide simultaneously. This technology is now patent pending. 2005. MicroRNA research emphasis. Realizing the upcoming need for miRNA research, in 2005, Dr. Rogler headed an effort in the Core to develop a new microarray platform designed to carry out miRNA profiling (miRGEMs). In an effort to move into miRNA research, Dr. Rogler took a sabbatical leave in the Tuschl laboratory at Rockefeller University, where he learned miRNA cloning technology and helped develop miRNA target identification protocols. The miRGEMs are in their third printing, having been extensively used at Einstein. Current. The development of technologies for deep sequencing and other genomic analysis methods, (454 Life Sciences, Solexa and SNP analysis), have opened up a new era in genomics research. The current emphasis of the Core is to facilitate the use of these new technologies among Center Investigators by providing help and direction in the preparation of samples for sequencing and proteomic analysis, as illustrated in the list of Core services for the new grant period.