The Institute is connected to Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport (LSUHSC-S) and the scientists who occupy the facility's laboratories have implemented a theme-driven, interdepartmental strategy with seven floors devoted to research teams that study a variety of diseases and disorders.
- Cancer Center of Excellence
- Inflammation & Immunology
- Ischemic Disorders
- Neuroscience
- Signal Transduction
- Alcohol & Drug Abuse
- Research Core Facilty
In addition, the LSUHSC-S Research Advisory council organized the Research Core Facility (RCF) located on the sixth floor of the Institute. The mission of the RCF is to enhance the research capabilities of LSUHSC-S faculty by making available a variety of sophisticated analytical instruments and techniques in chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology and microscopy. Fulfilling this mission produces the auxiliary benefits of sharpening the competitiveness of proposals for new and renewing extramural grants; improving the Center’s ability to recruit top-level faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students; exposing students to state-of-the-art techniques in biomedical science that enhance their qualifications for postgraduate positions; and providing analytical services to other universities, hospitals and private technology companies in the State and the region.
The RCF mission is supported by this project’s goal: to expand RCF resources and establish funding sources so that access to state-of-the-art research tools is guaranteed to LSUHSC-S researchers and scientists from other institutions and private technology companies who are poised to make significant medical discoveries.
Exsisting Research Core Facilty Technology
The Research Core Facility currently has an estimated $3 million in equipment and resources. The Research Core Facility Faculty Oversight Group, composed of LSUHSC-S faculty members, is responsible for the promotion and operation of the six RCF technologies.
Flow cytometry is a technique to separate, classify and quantitate blood cells and antibodies that affect blood cells. The machine can be used either as an analytical tool, counting the number of labeled cells in a population, or to separate the cells for subsequent growth of the selected population. The RCF currently houses three flow cytometers for cell sorting. Because the flow cytometry system is so popular among researchers, there is a two to three month waiting period to use the equipment. Within the next two years, the RCF Faculty Oversight Group estimates that an additional flow cytometry cell sorter, costing approximately $450,000, will be necessary to meet the demands of funded research projects.
Mass Spectrometry: Determination of peptide masses by mass spectrometry is a technology that enables researchers to identify unknown proteins within minutes, a task that formerly took months to years. This advance is possible because of the knowledge base of DNA sequences in genomes that already exists for many organisms, including humans. Mass spectrometry is a powerful tool that allows investigators to determine a protein's "mass fingerprint" and then to match it to all known proteins. At LSUHSC-S, researchers in all of the basic science departments as well as those in several of the clinical departments use the technology. Over the next five years, existing LSUHSC-S mass spectrometry systems will need upgrades costing nearly $500,000.
DNA Gene Chip Analysis is technology used in genomics research to determine which of the 33,000 human genes are “on” or “off” in health and disease. This information provides an understanding of the disease process and identifies potential targets for therapeutic intervention. Previously, scientists could study only a few genes at a time – work that was costly and laborious. The Gene Chip technology enables scientists to analyze groups of genes or a whole genome itself quickly and to share this knowledge easily. LSUHSC-S has been informed that its Gene Chip Analysis equipment will be obsolete in three years when new technology becomes available. Updated equipment will cost approximately $400,000. Currently, 22 researchers use Gene Chip technology to investigate the effect of viruses on the expression of genes, the effect of drug therapies on cells, and patterns of gene expression in tumors that indicate aggressiveness and drug resistance.
Confocal and Digital Microscopy: Molecular biology and proteonomics have accelerated the discovery of novel proteins within cells and tissues. In order to understand the function of these proteins in cell and tissue interaction, it is often necessary to use microscopy-based techniques to distinguish localization proteins, DNA, and RNA within cells and tissues. The confocal and digital microscopy technology gives investigators at LSUHSC access to the state-of-the-art high-resolution microscopes that permit molecular imaging at the subcellular level. Since the cost to purchase such equipment is usually out of the financial reach of most scientists, the presence of confocal and digital microscopy at LSUHSC significantly enhances the research capabilities for investigators both within the institution and from other academic institutions. As with all technologies, the area of computer-assisted-microscopy is evolving rapidly. Within the next several years the imaging workstations will need significant upgrades in both computational capacity and in microscopy-based hardware. Moreover, the growing need by investigators to increase the speed of high-resolution imaging will necessitate the purchase of additional highly specialized microscopy workstations costing approximately $500,000.
Automated Cell Imaging: The study of biological indicators, or markers, in humans and animals may provide important new insights into the course of disease processes. These markers can provide important information on a patient's prognosis. Moreover, identification of new markers can help develop new diagnostic and potentially new therapeutic strategies. The immunohistochemical method (which uses manual light microscopy to quantify biological markers) is a widely used technique to analyze these biological markers, because it is technically easy to perform with standard laboratory equipment, and is therefore a very valuable tool. This method, however, is highly time-consuming and totally dependent on the experience of the microscopist. LSUHSC-S has obtained an exciting alternative to manual light microscopy: the Automated Cellular Imaging System (ACIS). ACIS is a new-generation image analysis system, which combines automated microscopy with computerized image processing. This completely eliminates the subjective variability of the microscopist, reduces contradictory results, and dramatically accelerates the research process.
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a molecular technique used to identify expression and mutations in genes using RNA and DNA. The PCR reaction allows billions of copies of a single gene to be reproduced by the process of amplification. Essentially, a needle can be found in a haystack: creating many copies of the gene under investigation increases the amount of information that can be gathered. Real-time PCR analysis detects specific DNA amplification products as they accumulate, as opposed to conventional detection methods performed at the end of the reaction. Therefore, real-time PCR is capable of screening genetic activity very quickly (within 2-3 hours), using a minimal amount of biological sample material, and is so sensitive that even a single molecule of DNA or RNA can be detected.
Core Laboratory Facility Key Scientists
Robert P. Chervenak, Ph.D., is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Chair of the Faculty Oversight Group for the RCF and Scientific Director of the Research Core Facility. He received his doctorate from the University of Tennessee in 1980, and completed a postdoctoral study at the University of Colorado. Dr. Chervenak’s major research interest is the role that certain cells play in regulating the immune system.
Jonathan Glass, M.D., is Director of the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center and Carroll W. Feist Professor of Cancer Research, Chief of the Section of Hematology-Oncology and Professor of Medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. He received his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School in 1966. Dr. Glass has considerable experience and expertise in the hematologic malignancies including lymphomas, leukemias, and plasma cell disorders, the non-malignant hematologic disorders (such as hemolytic anemias and hemochromatosis), as well as general oncology. Dr. Glass has been Chief of the Section of Hematology-Oncology since 1986 and Director of the Cancer Center since its inception in 1993. He has overseen the growth of the Cancer Center to its current status as a premier facility for clinical cancer research studies.
D. Neil Granger, Ph.D., is Boyd Professor and Head, Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. Dr. Granger received his doctoral degree from the University of Mississippi in 1977 and is the 2003-2004 President-Elect of the American Physiological Society. His areas of research expertise include microcirculation, stroke and surgical recovery.
Matthew B. Grisham, Ph.D., is Boyd Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology and Associate Director of the Arthritis Center of Excellence at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. Dr. Grisham received his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in 1982 and obtained his postdoctoral training at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital from 1982-84. After three years at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, Dr. Grisham arrived at LSU Health Sciences Center in 1987. Dr. Grisham’s research focuses on the immunological basis of inflammation and tissue injury in inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
J. Michael Mathis, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport and Director of the Core Facility for PCR and Automated Cell Imaging. Dr. Mathis received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1988 and is currently the director of the Louisiana Gene Therapy Consortium at LSUHSC-S. Dr. Mathis’s major research interests include gene therapy for ovarian cancer.
Kevin J. McCarthy, Ph.D., is Professor of Pathology in the Department of Cellular Biology and Anatomy at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport and Director of the Core Facility for Confocal and Digital Microscopy. He received his Ph.D. from the Albany Medical College in 1987. Dr. McCarthy’s research interests include cell and molecular biology of basement membranes in the development of disease, diabetes, and the activity of hormone receptors in biological systems.
Dennis J. O’Callaghan, Ph.D., is Boyd Professor and Willis-Knighton Chair of Microbiology and Immunology at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology-Virology from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson and completed postdoctoral study at the University of Alberta Medical Center. Dr. O’Callaghan’s major research interests include gene regulation of the herpes virus and persistent infection.
Robert E. Rhoads, Ph.D., is Professor and Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport and Director of the Core Facility for Mass Spectroscopy. Dr. Rhoads received his Ph.D. degree in 1971 from George Washington University. His major research interests include protein synthesis, viral pathogenesis involving translation, messenger RNA structure and function, and the regulation of cell growth.
Sandra C. Roerig, Ph.D., is Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics,
Associate Dean of Research and Assistant Dean School of Graduate Studies. She received her doctorate degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1988. Dr. Roerig’s research interests include mechanisms for development of tolerance and physical dependence to opioids and their role in pain relief.
John W. Sixbey, M.D., is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport and Director of the Core Facility for the DNA Gene Chip. He received his baccalaureate degree from the University of Maryland and his MD degree in 1977 from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. After completing his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Maryland Hospital, Dr. Sixbey received a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Previous to his arrival at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Dr. Sixbey was an investigator at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. His major research interests include the role of Epstein-Barr virus in human cancer.
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