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 Research Support Facilities The Stowers Institute encourages collaboration and fosters efficiency in research. The Institute’s research support facilities serve both goals. Each facility is headed by an expert in the field who works with research teams across the Institute to offer access to the latest technology and techniques, enabling Stowers scientists to accomplish in days and weeks what would take months and years elsewhere. The Institute’s research support facilities include: Bioinformatics The Bioinformatics Center analyzes sequence, structure, function, and evolution of biopolymers; numerical information coming from genome-wide measurements, such as gene expression profiling and protein-protein interactions; flow cytometry and optical microscopy data. We also provide advice on statistical planning and analysis of experiments, on mathematical modeling, and help users to organize their laboratory records. More details on the research and software development projects of the Bioinformatics Center are available at their Web page. Technology The Bioinformatics Center operates several Linux clusters and a myriad of programs, packages, and programming environments for analysis of biological data. Cytometry The Cytometry Facility is a state-of-the-art flow cytometry laboratory that specializes in the identification and isolation of rare target cell populations and the use of cytometric tools for studies of developmental biology. In doing so, the Facility is dedicated to becoming a valuable extension of the Stowers scientific laboratories for the skilled application of cytometric tools toward target projects and advancement of technologies. Technology The Cytometry Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Drosophila Stock Facility maintains an inventory of over 2200 unique Drosophila genotypes that are immediately available for researchers at the Institute. In addition to selected deletion kits obtained from the Bloomington Stock Center, the Facility maintains selected genotypes from Drosophila research programs at the Institute to reduce the time and effort researchers must spend to obtain healthy stocks. The Facility also prepares and delivers both syrup-based and molasses-based fly food for Drosophila research programs at the Institute. Technology The Drosophila Stock Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Histology/Electron Microscopy Facility is a full-service in-house laboratory dedicated to providing the highest quality histology services. The Facility provides paraffin microtomy, cryotomy, vibratome sectioning, plastic sectioning, and histochemical staining. It also offers a large repertoire of immunostaining protocols for adaptation to individual antibodies and sample types, in addition to providing staining for Ki-67, BrdU, GFP, and Cleaved Caspase-3. For researchers wanting to learn how to section or stain their own material, the Facility can provide successful protocols and instruction on any of its common-use equipment. If ultra-thin sectioning and electron microscopy are needed, the staff can process the samples either by routine chemical fixation or high-pressure freezing and freeze-substitution methods and provide stained grids for subsequent imaging. The Facility also offers negative staining, Immuno EM, and assisted EM imaging. For SEM imaging, it has a desktop unit that is very easy to learn for samples needing magnification under 10,000X. Technology The Histology/Electron Microscopy Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Laboratory Animal Services (LAS) Facility provides the Institute’s research staff with the highest quality laboratory animal care and support services using state-of-the-art equipment, advanced technology, and a progressive staff in a premier animal facility. The management of the LAS Facility ensures all housing, husbandry practices, and veterinary care for the animals are in compliance with the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, Animal Welfare Act and its amendments, and the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, as well as all other institutional, state, and local regulations. The Facility is designed to maintain animal projects under rigorous barrier conditions, and every effort is made to limit the introduction of undesirable pathogens which may impact the integrity and reproducibility of the research data. High standards of animal health and welfare are maintained and regularly monitored and examined by federal agencies and local ethics committees. Technology The LAS Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Media Preparation Facility serves to reduce the time and labor researchers must spend preparing reagents and growth media necessary for their various projects. Commonly used reagents such as Tris buffers and Luria broth are kept in stock to be used as needed by Institute researchers. The Facility prepares media used in larger volumes, such as for tissue culture and a variety of media plates poured to order. Technology The Media Preparation Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Stowers Microscopy Center was created to enable every scientific member of the Stowers Institute to get the best light microscope images technically possible. Its staff of physicists, software specialists, chemists, and biologists trains users on the state-of-the-art equipment and helps scientists to conduct microscopy experiments. The center supports several image processing software packages and has specialists to program custom solutions. The center actively explores and develops new technologies. It helps scientists to set up optical experiments and to decide on the best microscope equipment for a given task. Technology Standard microscopy:
Molecular Biology The Molecular Biology Facility supports investigators in their research endeavors by providing high quality services, collaborative project potential and access to state of the art technology. Current routine services include DNA sequencing, site-directed mutagenesis, riboprobe synthesis, plasmid preps and distributing clones/vectors from our in house collections. We also support real time quantitative PCR through instrument training, troubleshooting and experimental design. Stowers researchers also have access to the latest microarray technology within our facility. We support commercially available Affymetrix and Agilent platforms as well as spotted arrays made in house. Common microarray experiments include ChIP- chip, array CGH, and expression applications. We utilize liquid handling and colony manipulation robots to automate many of our services and improve quality. In addition we provide automation expertise and collaborate with researchers on custom automation projects. Examples of collaborative automation projects include large scale yeast synthetic lethal screens and generation of a histone alanine scanning library. Recent technology acquired by the facility include a Caliper labchip90 automated electrophoresis system and a next generation sequencer (Illumina/Solexa Genome analyzer). Applications we are developing on our Illumina genome analyzer in collaboration with Bioinformatics and research advisors include digital expression profiling, ChIP sequencing, whole genome sequencing and targeted re-sequencing. Technology The Molecular Biology Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
The Proteomics Center implements a chromatography-based proteomic approach known as mutlidimensional protein identification technology (MudPIT). Typical collaborations include analyzing complex protein mixtures to determine comprehensively members of multiprotein complexes or to identify proteins localized to specific subcellular compartments. More in-depth analyses can be undertaken to find posttranslational modifications in proteins of interest. The Center team consists of masters- and doctoral-level scientists with backgrounds ranging from biochemistry to physics. The Center works closely with the Bioinformatics Center on computational analysis of mass spectrometry data and relies on the Information Technology team for cluster maintenance and large-capacity data storage. More details on the projects in the Center are available at their Web page. Technology The Proteomics Center uses the following equipment in its work:
The Reptile & Aquatics Facility provides the Institute’s research staff with the highest quality laboratory animal care and support services for non-mammalian species. Specialized husbandry is provided for a wide variety of animals. Species currently worked with include:
Technology The Reptile and Aquatics Facility uses the following equipment in its work:
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