Biomedical Research Cores

Research is greatly facilitated by the University of Michigan Biomedical Research Core Facilities (BRCF), which serve as campus-wide resources for developing and providing state-of-the-art biomedical research services. The BRCF ensure that individual investigators have access to new biomedical research services and costly instrumentation. They provide highly trained personnel to carry out technically demanding procedures, thus providing increased quality control and efficiency. The BRCF also sponsor relevant mini-courses and technical symposia. The cost of running the BRCF is subsidized by the University. The Core Facilities include the following:

• Biochemical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Core
• Biosafety Containment Facility provides a safe environment for the culture and analysis of pathogenic Risk Group II and III viral agents, including HIV-1, HIV-2, HTLV-I, Hepatitis B and many other indigenous human pathogens.
• DNA Sequencing Core Facility
• Flow Cytometry Core Facility
• Hybridoma Core Facility generates somatic-cell hybrids (hybridomas) that produce monoclonal antibodies of desired specificity.
• Michigan Small Animal Imaging Resource
• Microarray Core Faciliities - Several exist on Campus. The Affymetrix and cDNA Micorarray Core Facility run by the U of M Comprehensive Cancer Center is linked here.
• Microscopy and Image Analysis Laboratory provides facilities for light and fluorescence microscopy, confocal microscopy, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy.
• Organogenesis Morphology Core Facility
• Protein Structure Facility provides research services in peptide synthesis, protein analysis and protein mass spectrometry.
• Biomedical Research Store maintains in-house stocks of restriction enzymes, cell culture reagents, and other related enzymes and molecular biology reagents from several vendors.
• Tissue Core (U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center) processes both human and mouse tissue samples being used for research.
• Transgenic Animal Model Core Facility
• Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine
• Vector Core Facility produces state-of-the-art recombinant retroviruses and adenoviruses for use in projects related to recombinant gene expression and gene therapy.