Core Shared Facilities

Website: Animal Care Phenotyping (login required)

Faculty Director: Keith Jenne, Director ACP, Campus Veterinarian

Alt. Contact for : Vet Services

Department: Animal Care Program

Description: The UCSD Phenotyping Core provides behavioral and metabolic testing to assist researchers reach their goals. We provide testing, training, and rental of equipment for many testing paradigms on a recharge basis. All tests must be in an approved protocol prior to scheduling. All scheduling requests must be made a minimum of two business days in advance.

Services include:

Website: ACP Caesarian Rederivation Services (login required)

Faculty Director: Keith Jenne, Director ACP, Campus Veterinarian

Alt. Contact: ACP Vet Services

Department: Animal Care Program

Description: ACP provides caesarian rederivation services for mice and rat populations. This mechanism is used to control the microbial environment of research colonies.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: ACP Diagnostic Laboratory Services (login required)

Faculty Director: Kent Osborn, Veterinary Pathologist

Alt. Contact: Cheryl Yost, Nicole Gardner, Staff Res Assocs, (858) 534 4264

Department: Animal Care Program

Description: The Animal Care Program Diagnostic Services Laboratory provides a broad spectrum of clinical pathology and morphologic pathology services for research support (e.g., safety/toxicology testing, individual animal model-related tests,p henotype analysis), as well as colony and individual animal health diagnostics and care. Prices for these services are determined on a cost recovery basis. The diagnostic laboratory is overseen by a veterinary pathologist, and staffed by experienced laboratory technicians. The large range of procedures and tests conducted in-house by the laboratory is complemented and expanded by use of established outside reference laboratories when necessary, as coordinated by the laboratory.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: ACP Irradiation Services (login required)

Faculty Director: Keith Jenne, Director ACP, Campus Veterinarian

Alt. Contact: ACP Vet Services

Department: Animal Care Program

Description: Multiple irradiators are available for experimental radiation of animals or biological materials. These units are operated by the ACP.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: ACP Surgical Operative Suites & Equipment Rental

Faculty Director: Keith Jenne, Director ACP, Campus Veterinarian

Alt. Contact: Marilyn Hardee; Tel #: (858) 534-4260

Department: Animal Care Program

Description: ACP maintains multiple animal surgical operating rooms that may be rented by the day.  ACP also offers anesthesia and surgical support equipment for rent.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: ACP Veterinary Technical Services (login required)

Faculty Director: Keith Jenne, Director ACP, Campus Veterinarian

Alt. Contact: acp-vetservices@ucsd.edu

Department: Animal Care Program

Description: The Animal Care Program has a qualified staff available that can provide a variety of technical services to your lab on a recharge basis.  Services that can be provided include but are not limited to all types of injection (IP, IM, IV, SC), blood and tissue collection, gavage, x-ray, surgical procedures, anesthesia, surgical nursing, post-op care, etc. The ability for ACP staff to provide a particular service is based on many factors. The ACP has Animal Health Technicians available to assist laboratory staff with hands on training for minor technical procedures such as handling and restraint, blood and tissue collection, etc.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: ACTRI Clinical Research Services

Faculty Director:  Dr. Eric Mah, Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research

Alt. Contact:  CRSI Navigator

Department: Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI)

Description: The vision of the UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) is to translate scientific discoveries into improved health.  ACTRI’s mission is to facilitate the research of others by providing resources, training, and collaboration opportunities for ACTRI scientists, health care providers, and the community.

Services include:

• Center for Clinical Research (CCR) contains services that facilitate performing all aspects of clinical research. This includes the ACTRI Clinic, Research Coordinator & Language Translation Services, Regulatory Support, Project Management Services, IDS Pharmacy, MRI/Imaging, and Data Safety Monitoring.
• Biomedical Informatics (BMI) supports software for managing clinical trials and observational studies, as well as tools to query clinical records. Services include Velos eResearch, DECS, VRD, REDCap, CDWR, ACT, and general IT support.
• Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) provides statistical support at all research phases. Areas of interest include clinical trials, longitudinal data, survival analysis, observational studies, and high-dimensional data. Services include study design and proposal writing, statistical analysis, as well as publishing and communication
• Center for Computational Biology & Bioinformatics (CCBB) provides investigators with core bioinformatics expertise to analyze large molecular datasets, especially from next-generation sequencing. Special emphasis is on areas of genomics, systems biology and personalized medicine.
• Translational Research Technology Center (TRT) provides a one-stop shop of flexible laboratory-based services for translational studies to ACTRI members and external collaborators. Services include biorepository, sample acquisition, and laboratory (bio-analytical and assay development)
• Device Acceleration Center (DAC) serves as the ideation and testing hub of medical devices at UC San Diego by providing translational science training, identifying unmet clinical needs amenable to clinician-engineer collaboration, prototype testing, and commercialization.
• Center for Excellence in Translational Immunogenomics (CETI) provides training in translational genomics and facilitates the creation of multi-disciplinary translational immunology research teams with end-to-end support from participant ID to translational application by providing consultations, PM support, and coordination among relevant ACTRI units.
• Community Research Partnerships (CRP) builds and supports partnerships with health systems, universities, and public sector agencies in order to promote collaborative research with ACTRI.
• Center for Community Health (CCH) improves community health outcomes and contributes to the elimination of health inequities. Our public health practice is interdisciplinary and cultivates meaningful and authentic relationships with communities. Our applied research uses a community asset-based framework to develop and refine impactful interventions across the spectrum of social and structural determinants of health.
• Dissemination & Implementation Science Center (DISC) focuses on dissemination and implementation science across UC San Diego Health Sciences. Key activities include training, consultation, technical assistance, and mentoring to advance D&I science with a local, national, and global impact.
• Population Research Scientific Methods (PRSM) supports inclusion of vulnerable and special populations into clinical research, training and seminar series, and methods for transitioning care from childhood to adulthood. The Center provides consultation services to assure that research groups use best practices when designing and performing clinical studies.
• Participant Recruitment Center (PRC) has a variety of tools and services available to help you achieve your participant recruitment goals. From community engagement consultation to novel informatics platforms that consider participant preferences, these tools can be customized to help you reach your target population.
• The Education, Training, and Career Development Unit provides funding, training, seminars, and mentorship to researchers and students who want to advance health sciences. Programs include CREST/MAS, KL2, SUSTAIN, MedGap, and Translational Science Certificate.
• Clinical Research Strategic Initiatives (CRSI) focuses on operational excellence at its core, CRSI offers a wide range of consultative services, project management expertise, and business system support to all ACTRI centers, units, and partner institutions. This includes process improvement & workflow automation, data analytics & leadership reporting, as well as CTSA grant management & progress tracking.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Biochemical Genetics and Metabolomics Lab

Faculty Director: Bruce Barshop, Professor Emeritus, Pediatrics

Department: Pediatrics

Description: The Biochemical Genetics and Metabolomics Lab performs metabolic screening, organic acid, amino acid, and acylcarnitine analysis for researchers and patients at UC San Diego and non-UC San Diego medical institutions.

• Metabolomic determinations including those classes of compounds, and purines and pyrimidines, short chain fatty acids, and some carbohydrates.
• Specialized testing for intracellular cystine determination, including diagnosis of cystinosis by leukocytes and fibroblasts, and cysteamine therapy monitoring.
• Enzyme assays of HPRT and APRT in RBC and fibroblasts, and methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase, pyruvate carboxylase and propionyl-CoA carboxylase in leukocytes and fibroblasts.
• Core equipment includes Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spec (triple quadrupole [AB Sciex API-5500, 4000, 2000] and Q-TOF [AB-5600]), Amino Acid Analyzer (Biochrom 50), HPLC- UV-Vis (Agilent 1050, 1100), and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (Agilent 5971, 5973).

Active Recharge: Yes

Faculty Director: Robert Sah, Professor

Alternate Contact: Dr. Albert Chin,

Department: Bioengineering, Orthopaedic Surgery , Institute of Engineering in Medicine - Center for Musculoskeletal Research

Description: Core equipment includes Skyscan 1076 MicroComputed Tomography scanner for in vitro samples, at 9, 18, and 35um voxel size. Basic scanning includes scan time, axial views, and data. Additional options include advanced image processing for 2-D and 3-D visualization, morphometry, mineral density, fixed charge density.

Active Recharge: No

Website: Biomolecular and Proteomic Mass Spectrometry Facility

Facility Director: Majid Ghassemian, Project Scientist

Faculty Oversight: Elizabeth Komives, Professor

Department: Chemistry & Biochemistry, also supported by CTRI, Superfund, and SOM

Description: Core services include protein identification from gels or complex mixtures, multidimensional separations prior to nanoLC MSMS, protein quantitation by SILAC and iTRAQ, TMT, identification of post-translational modification including phosphorylation (phosphor-proteome), acetylation, and methylation. Core equipment includes ABSciex 5600 triple-TOF, and Thermo Fusion Lumos Orbitrap with ETD.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Lab

Faculty Director: Charles Berry, Professor

Department: Family & Preventative Medicine

Description: Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Lab provides Biostatistics and Bioinformatics consulting and Biomedical Informatics services.

Active Recharge: No

Website: Campus Research Machine Shop

Facility Director: Luke Arnold, Senior Superintendent, (858) 534-2910

Department: Resource Management and Planning

Description: CRMS performs CNC machining and design consultation to meet customers'' specialized needs. CAD/CAM technology enables us to machine complex parts to high tolerances at competitive rates. We also maintain a fully stocked material inventory for purchase, including steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass, copper and plastics in a variety of forms and sizes. We also stock a large selection of metal working tools, o-rings, tube fittings and fasteners. Services include: Machining, Welding, Grinding, Turning, Milling, Wire and sinker EDM, Sheet metal fabrication, Vacuum leak testing, Heat treating, Gas brazing, Electro polishing, Fork Lift service for heavy equipment relocation.

Active Recharge: Yes

Faculty Director: Ana Navarro, Assoc Prof

Department: Family and Preventative Medicine

Description: This shared resource is part of the Cooperative planning of the SDSU/UCSD Cancer Center Partnership grant. It is available to all SDSU and Cancer Center faculty and investigators conducting research related to cancer and under-represented ethnic groups.

Active Recharge: No

Faculty Director: Jeffrey Omens, Professor

Department: Medicine

Description: Cardiovascular Physiology Lab is a large animal (dog and pig) research facility with bi-plane x-ray imaging instrumentation, and cardiovascluar physiology measurement systems for blood pressure, vascular flow, ECG, etc. Core equipment includes GE bi-plane x-ray system and Gould amplifier system.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: CASS Research and Engineering Services and Test Facilities

Faculty Director: Edwin Stephan, Pr Dev Engr 

Department: Center for Astrophysics & Space Sciences

Description: CASS Research and Engineering Services and Test Facilities: The CASS thermal/vacuum facility is a vacuum chamber (4 ft diameter x 7 ft long) with porting for cold gas/LN2 interface to custom thermal shrouds with heaters for thermal control in the -150C to +50C range. Vacuum pressures of 10-6 Torr are achievable through the diffusion pump and cold trap. Automated control of the thermal system and cold trap nitrogen supply allows users to operate the system around the clock for cost effective thermal/vacuum environmental testing of space instrumentation. CASS engineers and programmers have decades of experience in instrument and system design for radiation detection and space applications. They have developed lung function instrumentation for the astronauts on the Space Shuttle, high resolution electron detectors for electron microscopy at the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, as well as packaging phototubes for use in hostile environments deep undersea or in outer space.

Active Recharge: No

Website: Cell Engineering Research Center

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Center for Computational Biology & Bioinformatics (CCBB)

Facility Director: Kathleen Fisch, Ph.D., Executive Director

Alt. Contact: Amanda Birmingham, Operations Manager

Department: Department of Medicine

Description: We place special emphasis in the areas of genomics, transcriptomics, systems biology and translational medicine. Our services include data analysis, biological interpretation, grant writing and training. The center’s goals are to provide exceptional fee-for-service computational analysis and algorithm development, foster long-term collaborations with the UC San Diego research community, educate biomedical investigators on analysis tools and techniques, and connect bioinformaticians on campus and promote exchange of expertise.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Center for Functional MRI

Faculty Director: Thomas Tao-Ming Liu, Professor

Alt. contact: Peggy Totzke, Dir. of Finance and Administration

Department: Radiology

Description: The Center currently has two state-of-the-art General Electric (GE) Discovery MR750 3T whole-body imaging systems for studies in humans and a Bruker 7T MRI system for animal studies.  Access to these scanners is available on a recharge basis. The scanners are available for research scanning 24 hours a day / 7 days a week. Research scan time is scheduled through an online Webschedule system.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Center for the Future of Surgery

Faculty Director: Santiago Horgan, MD

Alt. Contact: Center for the Future of Surgery, cfs@ucsd.edu

Department: Surgery, School of Medicine

Description: The Center for the Future of Surgery, situated in the Medical Education and Telemedicine Building on the Medical School Campus, offers medical simulation and surgical training using the latest surgical technologies. We provide staffing and equipment for surgical testing, training, and research on a recharge basis. Studies can utilize large or small animals, or human cadavers across 22-stations in our standard OR suites, 15-station microsurgery suite, or a hybrid OR equipped with a c-arm for imaging.

Services and equipment include:

• Robotics: da Vinci® Surgical Systems
• Cardiothoracic
• Colorectal
• ENT / Otorhinolaryngology
• Gastroenterology
• General surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Orthopedics
• Plastics
• Trauma
• Urology
• Vascular

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: CFAR Bioinformatics and Information Technologies (BIT) Core

Faculty Director: Sergei L. Kosakovsky Pond, Associate Professor

Alt. contact: Jason A. Young, Assistant Professor

Department: Center for AIDS Research

Description: The Bioinformatics and Information Technologies (BIT) Core develops and provides a variety of computational and analytical services for local, national, and international researchers. Our team’s wide range of expertise in the latest open source software tools, bioinformatics methods, mobile technologies, and biomedical data management systems enables us to fulfill your computational needs, so that you can focus on doing your best and most cutting-edge research. Some of our most frequently used services include clinical research data management, mobile data collection, biomedical website design and hosting, phylogenetic and molecular evolution analysis, and NextGen sequence analysis. We also offer access to our private and secure 700+ processor compute cluster on a per project basis. Please visit us online today and see what we’ve done and how we may help you!

Active Recharge: No

Website: CFAR Clinical Investigation and Biostatistics (CB) Core

Faculty Director: Christopher Mathews, Richard Haubrich, and Sonia Jain

Alt. contact: Eric Ellorin

Department: Center for AIDS Research

Description: The Clinical Investigation and Biostatistics Core provides services and expertise to help investigators, especially those new to HIV research, to conduct clinical studies as well as to access longitudinal databases for epidemiologic and outcomes research. The Clinical Investigation and Biostatistics Core provides the expertise and resources necessary for basic, clinical, health services, and epidemiologic researchers to efficiently and safely conduct clinical research to increase our understanding and treatment of HIV disease.  The Core also has access to longitudinal databases maintained by UC San Diego's Owen Clinic and the CFAR Network of Integrated Clinical Systems (CNICS).

The CB Core can assist you with design of data collection instruments; clinical trial design, randomization schemas, and training of clinical personnel; and statistical consultations, including sample size estimates, analysis plans, and statistical analyses.

Contact us today to make your clinical research work for you!

Active Recharge: No

Website: CFAR Flow Cytometry Research Core Facility at VA/VMRF

Faculty Director: Celsa Spina, Assoc Prof

Alt. Contact: Tara Rambaldo and Neal Sekiya (858) 552 8585 ext5933

Department: Center for AIDS Research, Medicine, VASDHS, VMRF

Description:  We provide consultation and services for the following: 1. Multiparameter cell phenotyping up to 11-color antibody combinations. 2. Analysis applications such as cell activation, proliferation, cell cycle/DNA content, apoptosis, surface marker expressions, intracellular expressions, quantification of internal, regulatory and structural proteins and quantification of reporter genes (GFP, DsRed, mCherry, etc). 3. High-speed cell sorting of live and biohazardous samples, single-cell deposition into 96-well plates. Core instruments include: MoFlo XDP sorter, FACSAria II sorter, FACSCanto analyzers.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: https://cfar.ucsd.edu/en/core-services/genomics-and-sequencing/

Faculty Directors: David Looney, Assoc. Professor of Medicine and Matthew Strain, Asst. Professor Pathology

Alt. contacts: Wei-Wei Chiu and Pinyi Du

Department: Center for AIDS Research

Description: The Genomics and Sequencing Core is a full-service core facility providing services, reagents and expertise to perform assays ranging from small-scale to large-scale analysis of gene expression, microRNA quantitation, virus detection and quantitation, and SNP characterization, using TaqMan and Droplet Digital PCR technologies. We have over 15 years of experience in experimental design, consultation, nucleic acid extraction, cDNA synthesis, primer design, qPCR, and droplet digital PCR. Next generation sequencing for a variety of applications (bacterial genome, genome resequencing, miRNA, other) is available. Core equipment includes: Applied Biosystems 7900HT Fast Real-Time PCR System, Applied Biosystems 7500 Real-Time PCR System, two Bio-Rad QX100 Droplet Digital PCR Systems, Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer & 2200 Tape Staion, Thermo Scientific NanoDrop ND-1000 and ND-8000 spectrophotometers, Qiagen QIAcube, Life Technologies Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine and Illumina MiSeq sequencers.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: CFAR Translational Virology Core

Faculty Director: Sara Gianella Weibel, Associate Professor

Department: Center for AIDS Research

Description: CFAR Translational Virology Core provides specimen processing, shipping, storage, nucleic acid preps, sequencing, analysis, and HIV  clinical assays. Core equipment includes ABI sequencer, plate reader, 8 pcr thermocyclers.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Chemistry and Biochemistry Fabrication Facility

Fabrication Facility Contact: Douglas Starkey, Carpenter

Alt. contact: Rick Thomas, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Facilities Director

Department: Chemistry & Biochemistry

Description: The Fabrication Facility, located in room 1610 of York Hall, is a full service development, renovation, demolition, and machine and wood shop. As a recharge facility, services may be extended to any of the academic departments at UCSD, as well as SIO.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Chemistry Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility

Faculty Director: Stan Opella, Professor 

Alt. contact: Anthony Mrse, Xuemei Huang 

Department: Chemistry & Biochemistry

Description: The Chemistry NMR facility features a 500MHz, two 400Mhz, and 300 MHz Varian spectrometers and is located in rooms 5140 and 6118 of Pacific Hall. The Biomolecular NMR facility features a Varian 800MHZ, a Bruker 600MHz and a Varian 500MHz and is located in B007  of the Natural Sciences Building. Reservations are made on a day-to-day basis. During normal business hours, sign-up time is limited to 45 minutes on the 300 and the two 400s. Experiments requiring more time should be performed during the evenings or weekends. For reservation limitations on the 500, please visit the 500 scheduling page. Please note that while all of the facility's spectrometers are capable of a standard battery of experiments, for non-standard applications, please identify which spectrometer fits your needs best before reserving time. If your project has time requirements that extend beyond the normal boundaries of what is available on the scheduler or you experience problems with the instruments, please contact us at nmr@chem.ucsd.edu with your request. This will direct your query to everyone involved with maintaining the NMR facility. Core equipment includes Varian VNMRS 800 NMR with 3x Resonance Cold Probe (NSB), Varian VNMRS 500 NMR (NSB), Bruker Avance 600 NMR with 3x Resonance Cryoprobe (NSB),  Varian VNMRS 500 NMR with Xsens Cold Probe (Pacific Hall), JEOL ECA 500 NMR (Pacific Hall), Varian Mercury Plus 400 NMR (Pacific Hall), Varian Mercury 400 NMR (Pacific Hall), and a Varian Mercury 300 NMR (Pacific Hall)

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Chemistry Stockroom

Facility Directors: John Lasky and Dan McMullin

Department: Chemistry & Biochemistry

Description: The Stockroom is located on the first floor of Urey Hall. We offer a variety of laboratory and office products, from special chemicals to ordinary office supplies. In addition, a selection of standard tools and electronics components is available. As a recharge facility, the Stockroom extends its services to groups possesing a valid index number, including any of the academic departments at UCSD, as well as SIO.
The Stockroom Telephone Number is (858) 534-2017.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Clinical Laboratory Services

Faculty Director: Ronald McLawhon, Clin Prof 

Alt. Contact: Lorraine Tamashiro

Department: Pathology

Description: Clinical Laboratory Services provides clinical laboratory services for the UCSD Medical Centers (Hillcrest and La Jolla) as part of the Department of Pathology.

Active Recharge: No

Faculty Director: Edmund Capparelli, Clin Pharmacist 

Alt. contact: Steven Rossi

Department: Pediatrics

Description: Clinical Pharmacology and Assay Laboratory provides quantitative assays of pharmaceutical agents and biochemical markers. Core equipment includes 3 Beckman HPLCs, 1 Thermo Separation LC/MS, and 1 LCQ Duo Thermo-Finnigan MS.

Active Recharge: No

Website: CMM Electron Microscopy

Facility Director: Guillaume Castillon

Department: Cellular Molecular Medicine

Description: EM core provides services such as routine morphology on ultrathin sections of plastic embedded material, correlative light and electron microscopy, immunogold labeling of ultrathin cryosections, and negative staining of small biomaterials and nanoparticles. We serve academic research laboratories, as well as companies.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: CORE Bio Services

Facility Director: Fritz Leader

Alt. contact: Core orders/questions

Department: School of Medicine

Description: Core Bio Services offers high quality biotech products and services at competitive prices to the campus research community and to the San Diego biotech community. Core stocks restriction enzymes, modifying enzymes, transformation and transfection products, growth factors, ultrapure reagents, DNA sequencing and much more from a variety of vendors. Core also provides secure liquid nitrogen storage for cell lines and biologicals.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: CRBS IT Facility

Faculty Director: Dr. Mark Ellisman, Professor

Technical Contact: Sean Penticoff, CRBS IT Manager

Department: The Center for Research in Biological Systems (CRBS)

Description: CRBS IT Facility provides desktop support and business application support, including disaster recovery. Provides Information Technology (IT) Services related to large-scale data storage, virtual machine (VM) hosting, high throughput networking and consultation services related to computational science and research applications, including:

1. Support, consultation, and design services regarding project system integration and architecture (aka non-recurring engineering) to help insure compute resources, data storage and network systems are optimally implemented.

2. Data and application hosting services (on-going services). These services include advice on, and support of, enhancements to hardware infrastructure (servers, data storage, network, IT appliances), assistance with software configuration management and release packaging, storage and management of large scale biomedical data, including acquisition, sharing, and publication of the data, assistance with migration and/or federation strategies for additional external datasets and the utilization of data grid resources, support for activities of collaborators, including review of architecture documents that relate to utilization of Center for Research in Biological Systems (CRBS) developed/deployed infrastructure, tools and resources; assistance documenting such specific architectures and interfaces; and demonstrations of key CRBS technologies, assistance with research/design/development of extension and specific deployments of key CRBS technologies.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: CRBS Lab for Neurocytology

Faculty Director: Dr. Mark Ellisman, Professor

Department: The Center for Research in Biological Systems (CRBS)

Description: CRBS Lab for Neurocytology provides investigators access to imaging instruments, including light microscopy platforms, electron microscopy platforms, and 3D X-ray microscopy. The facility also offers support for specimen-preparation, with an emphasis on techniques for correlated LM and EM. The use of recharge platforms is further supported by access to hands-on training and time with experts to help with new/advanced methods.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility

Facility Manager: Robert Ashley (858) 246-5429

Department: Biology

Description: The Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility is available to UC San Diego faculty, staff and students, as well as members of the non-profit research institutions on the Torrey Pines Mesa. The FEI Tecnai G2 Polara is a 300KV transmission electron microscope (TEM) equipped with a field emission gun (FEG). It has a newly developed stage that allows for examination of multiple, vitrified samples at either liquid nitrogen or liquid helium temperatures as well as a state of the art K2 direct detector and energy filter. The FEI Tecnai G2 Sphera is a 200KV TEM equipped with a LaB6 electron gun. It has the standard holder for dry samples and two Gatan cryotransfer holders. The Polara is equipped with the SerialEM tomography software and the Leginon image acquisition system. Both microscopes are available for use on a recharge basis, however use of the Polara will be restricted to those scientists whose projects require the higher resolution afforded by the FEG or the greater stability of the Compustage. For detailed descriptions of the FEI Titan Krios G3 and the FEI Talos Arctica, please visit the Cryo-EM website). The only sample preparation techniques performed in the facility are plunge freezing of particulate samples for cryomicroscopy and negative staining. Operation of the instruments by facility staff is available as is hands-on training on the instruments.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: CTRI Biomarker Lab

Faculty Director: David Boyle, Professor of Medicine

Alt. Contact: Michael Rosenbach, Translational Researcher

Admin. Contact:  Pam Fletcher-Rice

Department: Clinical Translational Research Institute

Description: Core provides validated Enzyme Immunoassay Services, Singleplex and Multiplex Immunoassays, and DNA extractions. Core equipment includes: 1) NanoPro 1000 and Simon; 2) QiaSymphony; 3)Omni Beadruptor 24; 4)Molecular Devices Spectramax M5, Spectramax 340pc384, and SkanWasher 300; 5) Mesoscale Discovery Sector Imager 2400; 6) Eppendorf epMotion 5070 Pipetting Robot; and 7) Corbett Robotics/Qiagen CAS1820 Nucleic Acid Extractor.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: CTRI Biostatistics Core

Faculty Director: Lily Xu, Professor

Department: Clinical Translational Research Institute, Family and Preventative Medicine

Description: The Biostatistics faculty and staff advise and collaborate with CTRI researchers on biostatistics, bioinformatics, and epidemiology. In addition to common statistical tools, the faculty and staff have expertise in areas including reproducible research reporting, R Bioconductor, and high performance computing.

Active Recharge: Yes

Faculty Director: Virgil Woods, Professor 

Department: Medicine

Description: Deuterium Exchange Mass Spectrometry provides deuterium exchange MS to study protein flexibility and solvent accessibility. Advanced protein structure analysis employing hydrogen exchange and mass spectrometry. Core equipment includes Orbitrap Velos with ThermoFisher ETD.

Active Recharge: No

Facility Director: Patricia Camacho, 858-822-4541

Facility Supervisor: Angeli Hernandez

Department:  Division of Biological Sciences

Description: The Drosophila Media Prep Kitchen, located in Bonner Hall, is dedicated to providing investigators with high quality media for Drosophila research and genetic stock maintenance. In the centralized kitchen, two types of media are prepared in large quantities in a steam-jacketed food kettle. Media is pumped into trays of glass vials (10ml) or glass bottles (30ml) depending on research needs. Media is prepared according to a strict protocol that ensures consistency in diet and the absence of any bacterial, fungal or insect contamination. Researchers return trays of bottles and vials to the facility where they are autoclaved, washed and filled again. 

Services included: Fly Foods (Bloomington/New, Texas/Old) – Washing Vials 

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Environmental and Complex Analysis Laboratory

Faculty Director: Kimberly Prather, Professor

Facility Director: Neal Arakawa, Director

Department: Chemistry and Biochemistry

Description: The Environmental and Complex Analysis Laboratory (ECAL) is a state-of-the-art analytical facility that houses cutting-edge chromatography and mass spectrometry systems through unique partnerships between UCSD and Thermo Scientific. The facility serves as a platform to develop innovative strategies for performing sensitive, accurate and precise analysis of complex environmental samples as well as other samples that may require unique applications in order to provide the highest quality analysis. Novel approaches to providing a comprehensive composition analysis of both complex and environmental samples can be implemented through the following state-of-the-art analytical systems within the ECAL facility: ultra-high resolution hybrid linear ion trap-Orbitrap mass spectrometer (Orbitrap Elite), gas chromatograph coupled to a triple-quadrupole detector (GC-TQD), 2-D and 1-D ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) systems with UV/Vis detection (all UPLC systems are capable of being connected to the Orbitrap Elite system), inductively couple plasma quadrupole mass spectrometer (ICP-MS), as well as an ion chromatograph with a conductivity detector. The ECAL facility also houses a variety of extraction platforms to aid in preparing complex samples for analysis.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Exercise and Physical Activity Resource Center

Faculty Director: Kevin Patrick, Professor

Alt. Contact: David Wing, (858) 534-9315

Department: Family & Preventative Medicine

Description: Equipment rental, consultation, data processing, and software support services to support measurement of physical activity and sedentary behavior (PA/SB) in the context of health-related research. This relates to PA/SB in the form of independent, moderating or dependent variable. EPARC maintains a fully equipped state-of-the-science exercise physiology laboratory to support the research community, train medical students and residents, and conduct comprehensive health-related fitness and performance assessments for the general public. EPARC also serves as an independent testing laboratory for the commercial health and fitness sector. We provide opportunities to assess and validate new technologies under non-disclosure agreements, and we also offer a laboratory-loan program for R&D departments. For more information download the digital brochure.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: GlycoAnalytics Core Resource

Faculty Director: Biswa Choudhury, Technical Director

Department: Cellular and Molecular Medicine

Description: Structural analysis of glycans (carbohydrates) isolated from cells, tissue and biological fluid samples using different analytical techniques such as HPLC and mass spectrometry. Our core facility specializes on monosaccharide composition analysis, sialic acid analysis, bacterial polysaccharide analysis, N- and O-linked glycan analysis and proteoglycan analysis which include heparin/hepran sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, dermatan sulfate and hyaluronic acid analysis. We also analyze sugar nucleotides, nucleotides, amino acid and fatty acids.

Our core facility is equipped with analytical instruments such as Thermo-Dionex ion chromatography systems (ICS3000 & ICS5000) attached with PAD/ UV/ FL detectors; ultra pressure liquid chromatography (Acquity, Waters) with fluorescence detector; gas chromatography mass spectrometry system (GC-MS) from Agilent Technologies and a LTQ-XL Orbitrap Discovery mass spectrometer (Thermo Scientific) attached to Ultimate3000 HPLC system for general LCMS analysis. Custom analyses are also done upon request and availability of instruments.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Human and Animal Tissue Technology Core

Faculty Director: Scott VandenBerg, Professor

Alt. contact: Don Pizzo, Senior Research Associate

Department: Pathology

Description: Services include tissue processing, embedding, sectioning, H&E staining, special stains, immunohistochemistry (IHC)/immunoflourescence (IF) and in situ hybridization (ISH). Technical training on instrumentation and protocol, consultation, and photomicroscopy are also available. Consultation to the researcher furthers their understanding of applications in their research program.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Human Embryonic Stem Cell Core Facility

Faculty Director: Karl Willert, Asst Professor

Alt. contact: Eric O'Connor

Location: Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, 1st Floor.

Department: UCSD Stem Cell Program and the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine

Description: Cell culture facilities includes self-serve use of biosafety cabinets, incubators, and other facilities for pluripotent cell culture hESC & FACS training (Training in hESC culture methods), and preparation of cultures for FACS sorting & analysis. Core equipment includes automated microscopy using Cellomics automated microscope self-serve,  confocal microscopy using Olympus FV 1000 Confocal Microscope self-serve,  real time qPCR using ABI 7900 HT,  electroporation using Amaxa Nucleofector II self-serve,  plate reading using Perkin Elmer Envision self-serve,  flow sorting via FACS Aria II operator service,  flow sorting via FACS Canto self-serve, analysis and graphics for flow cytometry data using Flowjo software, reagents and special plastics for hESC culture, and FACS cell sorting & analysis.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: HUMANOID - Institute for Network Medicine

Faculty Director: Pradipta Ghosh

Alt. Contact: Courtney Tindle

Department: Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine (CMM)

Description: HUMANOID^TM isolates, expands, and biobanks 3D organoids from healthy and diseased human tissues, isolates and biobanks primary cells and develops models to study organ physiology and human disease. Any tissue with stem cells can be grown as an organoid. Likewise, if a model requires microbes, immune cells, or non-immune support cells, HUMANOID^TM researchers can incorporate them, constantly refining the model to achieve greater complexity, as needed, to emulate key aspects of the disease. These models are informed by human pathophysiology and validated by PreCSN’s disease maps, translating engineered tissues/organoids into appropriate models to screen for drug efficacy and toxicity. Because organoids can be specifically derived from multiple patients in any disease subtype, these organoid-based models represent human organs-on-a-dish, enabling human phase 0 clinical trials.

Services include:

• Organoid Media (growth, freezing, transport, etc.)
• Normal and diseased human organoids and primary cells from all possible organs (colon, stomach, intestine, lung, [liver & heart coming soon], etc.) 
• Access to disease models (ulcerative Colitis, Crohn’s, colon cancer, [IBS & NASH/NAFLD coming soon])
• Co-culture model to study the interaction between microbes, epithelial cells, and immune cells
• Mouse organoids are also supported. 
• Training and workshops

Active Recharge: Yes 

Website: IGM Genomics Center

Director: Kristen Jepsen, Ph.D.

Alt. contact: Rebekah White, IGM Program Administrator

Department: Institute for Genomic Medicine (IGM)

Description: The IGM Genomics Center at the University of California San Diego, is a core research facility overseen by the IGM. Located in Leichtag 172, the IGM Genomics Center provides a variety of services, including sequencing library preparation and sequencing on Illumina's MiSeq and NovaSeq 6000. We support single cell sequencing on the 10X Genomics Chromium Controller. We also process Illumina Infinium Beadchips, which includes a variety of whole-genome genotyping (WGGT) arrays as well as the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip. For our complete offerings, please visit the Services tab on our website.

The mission of the IGM Genomics Center is to provide UC San Diego researchers, as well as researchers in the greater UC community, high-quality, cutting-edge and custom genomics services as well as consultation on experimental design and training/education about genomic methods. We can also provide our services to researchers at other research institutions and to industry.

Services: Study Design Consultation, Sample QC, Covaris Shearing, Illumina Library Prep (RNA/DNA/SmallRNA), Whole Genome Sequencing, Exome Sequencing, 10X Genomics Single Cell Applications, Illumina Sequencing Runs, Genotyping Arrays, Methylation Arrays, SARS-CoV2 Genome Sequencing

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Inorganic Materials Characterization Facility

Faculty Directors: Michael Sailor, Professor, and Seth Cohen, Professor

Alt. Contact: Ricardo De Luna, Sr. Research Associate

Department: Chemistry & Biochemistry

Description: The Inorganic Materials Characterization Facility (IMCF) is a recharge facility that provides various analytical tools for characterizing inorganic materials at the nanoscale: Nanoparticle size and surface charge (DLS with zeta potential measurement); surface area, pore size, and pore volume (nitrogen porosimetry); Bulk and surface chemistry (Raman and FTIR); optical absorbance and photoluminescence (steady-state and time-resolved reflectance, absorbance, or fluorescence microscopies).

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Integrative Health and Mind-Body Biomarker Lab 

Faculty Director: Suzi Hong, Assoc. Prof.

Alt. contact: Chris Pruitt, Lab Manager

Departments: Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science

Description: Integrative Health and Mind-Body Biomarker Lab provides blood, urine, saliva and tissue assays of numerous neuroimmune markers. Please contact Chris Pruitt if you are interested in using this facility.

Active Recharge: Yes

Websites: Levantine Archaeology Lab

Faculty Director: Thomas Levy, Distinguished Professor 

Department: Anthropology

Description: The UC San Diego Levantine Archaeology Lab provides hands-on research, learning and training to interested students and researchers from around the world. Archaeology research and service helps coordinate cyber-archaeology data acquisition, curation, analyses and dissemination. The laboratory has extensive study collections from the southern Levant that include materials spanning the Neolithic to Medieval Islamic times (ca. 8,000 BCE to 1400 CE). These include ceramics, lithics, archaeometallurgy, zooarchaeology and human osteology collections. The lab has a comprehensive collection of topographic and environmental maps, reference materials, computing facilities, laboratory spaces for artifact analyses, digital field equipment, administrative offices and seminar rooms. Permanent loan agreement with the Department of Antiquities of Jordan has facilitated the growth of the study collection since 1997. Since 2016, as part of the lab's engagement with the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology, research focuses on the Eastern Mediterranean, especially along Israel's Carmel coast in collaboration with the University of Haifa, and in the Mithoni Bay region of Greece with the University of Patras. Paleoenvironmental and archaeological data from these regions is analyzed in the lab.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Marine Physical Laboratory (MPL) R&D Machine Shop

Facility Director: Frank Biegler, Shop Superintendent

Department: Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Description: The Marine Physical Laboratory (MPL) Research and Development (R&D) Shop was established in 1946 to support seagoing scientific groups with the design and fabrication of specialized oceanographic research equipment.  After almost 70 years, the MPL R&D Shop has significant experience in the design and fabrication of scientific devices in support of oceanographic projects including precision optical equipment, sonar housings, deep sea pressure cases, winches, heave compensators, research equipment deployment, boom fabrication and a variety of marine equipment support devices.  The Shop also performs repairs on winches, cranes, hydraulic controls and a variety of special valves used in marine applications, as well as experience in construction, outfitting, deployment and maintaining sea buoys from 10 meters to 3 meters in diameter. In addition to all the fabrication and maintenance capabilities, the MPL shop handles all mooring operations for R/P FLIP during it's numerous research expeditions. The Shop, consisting of 18,000 square feet of both inside and outside space, has a wide variety of equipment from small precision machines to large shipyard type machinery, as well as an environmental test chamber, and special facilities for conducting equipment pressure tests, circuit board fabrication, and plastic potting. We also have 3D CAD/CAM programming capabilities for mills and lathes utilizing Mastercam 5X. 

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Materials Research Science & Engineering Center

Faculty Director: Michael Sailor, professor

Assistant Director: Janka Bond

Facility Manager: Ricardo De Luna

Department: Materials Research Science and Engineering Center

Description: The MRSEC Materials Characterization Facility is run by the UC San Diego Materials Research Science and Engineering Center,. The 1000 sq. ft. user facility is dedicated to materials characterization, housing instruments for Raman, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence and photoluminescence imaging, nitrogen porosimetry/surface area (BET), dynamic light scattering, zeta potential measurement, rheometry, optical reflectance, UV-visible-NIR spectrometers and plate readers, optical sensing setups, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), optical and fluorescence microscopy, x-ray powder diffraction, and conductivity measurement capabilities. 

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: MCC Biorepository and Tissue Technology

Faculty Director: Alfredo Molinolo, MD, PhD

Faculty Co-Director: Jason Sicklick, MD, FACS

Department: Moores Cancer Center

Description: The biorepository is a tissue bank containing human specimens with clinical annotation including primary tumor, primary mouse xenografts, plasma, serum, RNA stabilized buffy coat cells and urine.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: MCC Biobehavioral Shared Resource

Faculty Director: Brinda Rana, Associate Professor

Faculty Co-Director:Cheryl Rock, Professor

Alt. Contact:  Dennis Heath, (858) 822-1123

Department: Moores Cancer Center

Description: The resource provides expertise and guidance in developing and operationalizing behavioral research for Cancer Center members who do not necessarily have expertise in these areas, or who have limited resources to use high-quality, science-based methodology without the context and efficiency of a consolidated service core. The resource provides access to clinical and laboratory facilities and services that are otherwise not available for many Cancer Center investigators in the behavioral and population sciences and other programs.

The Biobehavioral Shared Resource (BBSR) provides services across three categories: (1) Biological indicators of behavior and assessment for determining molecular mechanisms, (2) Behavioral assessment, and (3) Behavioral interventions.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: https://medschool.ucsd.edu/research/moores/shared-resources/Pages/biostatistics-bioinformatics.aspx 

Faculty Director: Karen Messer, Professor

Department: Moores Cancer Center

Description: MCC Biostatistics provides biostatistical and bioinformatic support for data analysis.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: MCC Flow Cytometry

Faculty Director: Thomas Kipps, Professor

Alt. Contact: Dennis Young

Department: Moores Cancer Center

Description: Analytical Flow Cytometry: Utilizes a Becton Dickinson FACSCalibur, a 4-color, dual-laser benchtop flow cytometer. Included is the CellQuest software for list-mode data recording and analysis. Data recording and analysis can be performed with the FACS Aria, a triple-laser, multiparameter flow cytometer using up to 11-color fluorescence signals, along with forward and side-angle light scatter. Cell Sorting: In addition to analytical experiments, the FACSAria can perform aseptic sorting of living cell subpopulations utilizing various criteria, such as intrinsic cell properties, e.g. DNA content, Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP), or extrinsic properties, such as molecular markers identified by fluorescently-labelled monoclonal antibodies. Automated Magnetic Cell Sorting (autoMACS): Used for convenient isolation of rare cell subpopulations or large numbers cells, up to 4 x 109. Its use of magnetic particles for cell separation is both useful and efficient, and the cells can then go straight to FACS analysis or further sorting. Consultation: In addition to education about the functionality and capabilities of the Shared Resource, technical support personnel also advise in the design of experiments and assist investigators in the initiation of pilot projects, provide limited amounts of specific reagents, and contribute detailed consultation in analysis of data. Core equipment includes 3 Becton Dickinson FACSCaliburs, 1 BD FACSAria I and 1BD FACSAria II.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: MCC Genomics and Computational Biology Shared Resource

Faculty Director: Kristen Jepsen, Ph.D.

Faculty Co-Director: Pablo Tamayo, Ph.D.

Department: Moores Cancer Center

Description: The major objectives of the Genomics and Computational Biology Shared Resource are to provide Moores Cancer Center investigators with high-quality, cutting-edge and custom genomics services and data analyses, as well as consultation on experimental design and training/education about genomic methods and bioinformatics. 

1. To provide expert consultation on experimental design and analysis approaches for genomics datasets. 
2. To generate high-throughput sequence data in a cost-effective, efficient manner with rapid-turn around. 
3. To perform intermediate analysis of high-throughput sequence data including, DNA variant calling, mRNA isoform calling, miRNA analysis and DNA methylation analysis using established pipelines. 
4. To analyze genomic data including tumor profiling for DNA somatic mutations, differential expression analysis, as well as network and systems analysis.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: MCC Histology and Immunohistochemistry Core

Assistant Director: M. Valeria Estrada M.D,, (858) 534-8607

Lab Contact: histologycore@ucsd.edu, (858) 822-1011

Department: Moores Cancer Center

Description: MCC Histology and Immunohistochemistry Core provides histological and immunohistochemical technical services, interpretation of histopathological, frozen sections, Paraffin sections, histology stains, Immunohistochemistry Pathology consultation, and digital imaging and reports. Core equipment includes automated tissue processor, embedding system, automated cassette and slide printer, 4 microtomes and 2 cryostates, automated routine and special stainer, tissue microarrayer, automated IHC stainer.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: MCC In Vivo Imaging Shared Resource

Faculty Director: David Vera, Professor

Alt. Contact: Christopher Barback

Department: Moores Cancer Center

Description: The Core provides optical, micro CT, ultrasound, Hi Res planar gamma imaging, and micro PET of mice and rats. Support and expertise includes imaging physics, biological applications, animal support, image computation, optical hardware and software, diagnostic agent chemistry, preparation of F18 and C-11 labeled radiotracers, and kinetic modeling. Core equipment includes GE eXplore Vista PET, GE eXplore Locus CT, GE eXplore Optix, BioSpace Gamma Camera, and VisualSonics Vevo 770.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: MCC Microscopy Shared Resource

Faculty Director: David J. Hall, Professor

Alt. Contact: Kersi Pestonjamasp

Department: Moores Cancer Center

Description: MCC Microscopy Shared Resource provides deconvolution microscopy, laser scanning confocal microscopy, standard light microscopy, non-invasive optical imaging of small animals, image analysis and scientific visualization. Core equipment includes DeltaVision Deconvolution System, Zeiss LSM520 confocal system, upright and inverted fluorescence microscopes, IVIS200 animal imager, computation workstations, and terbyte storage servers.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: MCC Radiation Medicine 

Faculty Director: Dr. Andrew Sharabi

Alt. Contact: Riley Jones

Department: Moores Cancer Center

Description: This shared resource facility provides radiation services delivered by an X-Ray source for stereotactic radiation or via a gamma ray source for large field/whole body irradiation. Our Precision X-Ray Small Animal Radiation Therapy (SmART) machine allows for the development of unique treatment plans based upon its native 3D CT imaging and treatment modeling systems. It can also precisely deliver X-Rays in a treatment area as small as 5.0mm². Our large-field irradiator uses a Cs-137 source and is more suitable for whole-body irradiation of mice, cells (at RT, on ice, or on dry ice), and materials. Unique shielding can be set in place to selectively irradiate a region of interest upon request from an investigator..

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: MCC Transgenic Mouse 

Faculty Director: Pamela Mellon, Professor

Alt. Contact: Jun Zhao

Department: Moores Cancer Center

Description: The Transgenic Mouse shared resource is a state-of-the-art facility that has an outstanding track record in the production of genetically altered mice. Transgenic mice carrying new or novel genes are created by microinjection of DNA into the pronuclei of fertilized eggs. CRISPR mutagenesis of the mouse genome is performed by injection of CRISPR guide RNA, Cas9 RNA, and DNA oligonucleotides. Knock-out mice lacking specific genes of interest are created by homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells followed by injection into blastocysts to create chimeric mice. Highly experienced personnel produce transgenic and knock-out mice for UC San Diego investigators at very reasonable cost and with very short lead times.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Microbiome Core

Director: Kristina K Carter, PhD, MSPH, MBA

Alt Contact: Sonya Donato, PhD

Department: Department of Pediatrics

Description: Microbiome research has become dependent on powerful tools, such as amplicon, metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing, along with metaproteomics and metabolomics to understand microbial taxonomic and functional metabolism in myriad ecosystem, from cellular biochemistry to global ecology. Central to the application of this research are high-throughput, cost effective, standardize protocols to reliably process the hundreds thousands of samples that constitute modern microbiome investigations.

Understanding this delicate biological, genetic and metabolic equilibrium, and especially disturbance to that balance, require detailed investigation of the composition of a microbiome (rRNA amplicon and shotgun metagenomic sequencing), the transcriptional activity of its genes (metatranscriptomics), and the resulting proteomic and metabolite profile. Robust investigation also requires the ability to combine these tools using consistent, high-throughput protocols with automated technologies that minimize bias. Finally, by supporting the isolation of microorganisms from diverse environmental samples to create a culture library, and to quantify DNA and RNA markers with quantitative PCR, this suite of tools provides a comprehensive experimental platform to further research in any environment.

Services: Sample extraction, clean-up, library preparation, 16S, metagenomics and metabolomics.

Active Recharge: Yes

Faculty Director: Richard Haas, Professor

Department: Neurosciences

Description: Mitochondria DNA Lab providces Mitochondrial DNA panel and the South Blot testing.

Active Recharge: No

Website: Mitochondrial Bioenergetics Resource

Director: Anthony J A Molina, PhD, Vice Chief of Research in the Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology, and Palliative Care

Manager: Stephen Dozier, Laboratory Manager, Department of Medicine

Description: The Mitochondrial Bioenergetics Resource specializes in respirometry and other assays of mitochondrial function to support clinical, translational, and basic science research. Using Seahorse XF and Oroboros O2k devices, we provide support for both high-throughput and high-resolution respirometry to quantify oxidative phosphorylation, fatty acid oxidation, extracellular acidification, glycolysis, and other key bioenergetic measurements. We also offer consulting expertise in the design and conduct of mitochondrial research projects.

Website: Molecular Mass Spectrometry Facility

Faculty Director: Seth Cohen, Professor

Facility Director: Yongxuan Su, Senior Development Engineer

Department: Chemistry & Biochemistry

Description: The Molecular Mass Spectrometry Facility (MMSF) houses a Thermo LCQdeca MS, a Thermo LTQ-XL MS, a Micromass Quattro Ultima Triple Quadrupole MS, an Agilent 6230 accurate-mass high-resolution TOFMS, an Agilent 5977B GC-MSD, a Bruker Autoflex MAX MALDI-TOFMS, and three Agilent 1260 HPLC systems. The goal of the facility is provide collaborative interaction with mass spectrometry experts so that the highest quality analysis can be obtained. The MMSF provides routine MS and MS/MS, LC-MS, LC-MS/MS, HR-MS, LC-HR-MS analysis on various types of samples including synthetic organic molecules, synthetic peptides, natural products, organometallic compounds, polymers, intact proteins and oligonucleotides.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Motion Capture & Brain Dynamics Facility

Faculty Director: Howard Poizner, Research Scientist 

Department: Institute for Neural Computation

Description: Motion Capture & Brain Dynamics Facility of the NSF Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center and of the ONR MURI Center for Unsupervised Learning.  This is a state-of-the-art facility for combined motion capture, EEG, and large-scale immersive virtual reality.  Equipment includes a PhaseSpace, Inc. 24 camera IMPULSE 3D motion capture system; PhaseSpace, Inc 4 camera VISION system; SensAble Technologies, Inc. Phantom Premium 1.5 HF 6 DOF small robots (2 units); SensAble Technologies, Inc. Phantom Premium 1.0 3 DOF small robots (2 units);  Sensics, Inc. xSight 6123 Panoramic Head-Mounted-Displays (2 units); SR Research, Inc., EyeLink 1000 Desktop eye tracking system;  WorldViz, Inc., Enterprise Edition (5seat) 3D software toolkit; WorldViz, Inc., Ambisonic Auralizer 3D Sound System (20 channel);  Immersion, Inc., CyberTouch 6 point vibrotactile feedback; Thermo Scientific, Inc., F3 Articulated Robot System;  Polhemus, Inc. Liberty 16 sensor electromagnetic 3D motion tracking system; and a 72 channel active electrode Biosemi, Inc. EEG system.

Active Recharge: No

Website: Mouse Phenotyping and Pathology Core

Faculty Director: Nissi Varki, Professor

Department: Pathology

Description: Core provides phenotypic evaluation of animal models of human disease. A careful examination, always with the organs and tissues from littermate controls, of completely back-crossed genetically altered mice at different ages is critical to the understanding of the pathogenesis. The core provides a comprehensive histopathologic review  of a variety of tissues as well as providing education in the harvesting, processin, embedding, staining, and interpretation of images.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Murine Hematology, Chemistry & Coagulation Core

Faculty Director: Dzung T. Le, Assoc Prof 

Alt. Contact:  Qiongyu Chen

Department: Pathology

Description: Core provides hematology, coagulation, and blood chemistry analyses for mice and rats. Core equipment includes STart 4 Clot Detection System, Diagnostica Stago HEMAVET 950FS Multi species Hematology System, CDC Technologies, Inc. Model 490-4D Four Channel Optical Aggregation System, Chrono-Log Corporation.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Nano3 Nanofabrication Cleanroom Facility

Faculty Director: Yu-Hwa Lo, Professor

Tech. Director: Bernd Fruhberger, PhD.

Department: Qualcomm Institute/Calit2

Description: Nano3 offers advanced capabilities for fabrication and characterization of devices at the micro- and nano-scale in a state-of-the-art cleanroom and associated laboratories. Capabilities include state-of-the art electron-beam lithography, photolithography, thin film deposition, dry etching, back-end processing, metrology, materials characterization (Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Focused Ion Beam (FIB), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), etc.), wafer dicing, and microfluidics device development (hot embossing, PDMS processing, micromilling, etc). The facility is open to users from academia, government laboratories and industry.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research

Faculty Director: Mark Ellisman, Professor 

Alt. Contact:  Steven Peltier

Department: Neurosciences

Description: The National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research (NCMIR) is located on the University of California, San Diego campus. The mission of NCMIR is to develop technologies to bridge understanding of biological systems between the gross anatomical and molecular scales and to make these technologies broadly available to biomedical researchers. NCMIR provides expertise, infrastructure, technological development, and an environment in which new information about the 3D ultrastructure of tissues, cells, and macromolecular complexes may be accurately and easily obtained and analyzed. NCMIR pursues a coordinated, three-pronged approach to achieving its goals of imaging biological systems on a grand scale, focusing core technology development in three areas. 1 - biological specimen development for intermediate voltage electron microscopes (IVEMs) and correlated microscopies; 2 - instrumentation, including IVEM, camera development, and Telemicroscopy; 3 - advanced software infrastructure applications and database development.

Active Recharge: No

Website: Nikon Imaging Center

Director: Peng Guo 

Department: Cellular and Molecular Medicine

Description: The Nikon Imaging Center (NIC) at the University of California San Diego is a light microscopy core facility. Our NIC is a private-public partnership between Nikon Instruments Incorporated and UC San Diego. Nikon Instruments Incorporated has donated five cutting-edge microscope systems to our center to facilitate local research. We provide training and access to microscopy offerings from simple histology imaging to super-resolution techniques. We welcome researchers from UC San Diego and the greater San Diego research community. 

Active Recharge: Yes

Faculty Director: R. Jeffrey Chang, Professor

Alt. contact: Jeff Wong

Department: Reproductive Medicine

Description: Radioimmunoassay Core provides reproductive endocrinology services. The Andrology Lab provides semen analysis and sperm preparation. Hormone Assay Core provides measurements of protein and steriod hormones.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Radiology Imaging Lab MEG

Faculty Director: Roland Lee, Professor 

Department: Radiology

Description: Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is an advanced non-invasive functional brain imaging technique which measures the magnetic fields emitted by brain cells (neurons), which can display the location of brain activity, as it occurs in real-time. Besides being used to localize epileptic discharges in the brains of patients with seizures, MEG also localizes major functional centers in the brain that control movement, sensation, hearing, vision, and language, important for pre-surgical planning in neurosurgery.  MEG can also detect abnormal brain rhythms including slow-waves, and thus sensitively detects abnormal brain function, including from traumatic brain injury, strokes, tumors, and other disorders.  MEG is also a powerful research tool, enhancing our understanding of human brain function. It is being used to study a number of neurological disorders such as traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, autism, and stroke, as well as psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, dementia, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Lab equipment includes Elekta Neuromag VectorView 306-Channel MEG & 128-Channel EEG machine in a 6-layer shielded room.  There are only about 20 MEG instruments in the USA, and only two in California.

Active Recharge: No

Website: Radiology Imaging Lab MRI

Faculty Director: Rebecca Theilmann, Professor

Alt. contact: Chris Pung

Department: Radiology

Description: The General Electric 1.5T Signa HDx 14.0 M5 TwinSpeed MRI system is capable of structural, functional, and diffusion tensor imaging, and of spectrocopy (MRS and CSI), in 8 channel acquisitions. Full access to pulse sequence programming environments is available using GE pulse programming language. The scanner is available for research scanning 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Research scan time is scheduled through a web calendar system that is monitored and operated by the Department of Radiology at UCSD.

Active Recharge: No

Faculty Director: Maripat Corr, Professor

Department: Medicine

Description: The Rheumatic Disease Core Center Animal Genetics Core provides services to investigators primarily to characterize mouse models. Services offered include genotyping, flow cytometry, serum protein levels, breeding intercrosses, and experimental assistance. Please send an email request detailing your needs to mpcorr@health.ucsd.edu.

Active Recharge: Yes

Faculty Director: David Boyle, Research Scientist

Department: Medicine

Description: The Biomarker Core is one of three primary research support services of the UCSD Rheumatic Disease Core Center. Biomarkers are biological indicators that signal a changed physiological state due to disease or a therapeutic intervention. In inflammatory diseases, typical biomarkers include cytokines (e.g., IL-1, TNF-alpha), metalloproteinases and small molecule mediators (e.g., prostaglandins). The availability of biomarker assays has directly led to the need to develop specialized techniques to evaluate their expression in peripheral blood or very small tissue samples from the site of disease. mRNA analysis: Real time PCR and in situ hybridization; Protein analysis: Immunohistochemistry, ELISA and western blot analysis.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)

Faculty Director: Mike Norman

Alt. contact: Ron Hawkins

Services Contact: services@sdsc.edu

Department: San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)

Description: The San Diego Supercomputer Center, a leader in data-intensive computing and cyberinfrastructure, provides resources, services, and expertise to UC campuses as well as the national research community including academia, industry, and government. Core services available via recharge to UC researchers include high performance research computing and data storage; IT equipment co-location services; grant and proposal support; and advanced user support including scientific and application programming, parallel programming, code optimization, etc. User support staff have domain expertise in astronomy, bioinformatics, computational chemistry, computer science, data mining, engineering, genomics, geophysics, machine learning, physics, simulation and other areas.  High Performance Computing systems range from the large-scale “Comet” and “Expanse” systems to the medium-scale “Triton Shared Computing Cluster.” Storage recharge services include Universal Scale Storage (Qumulo) for open data and Sherlock for compliance data management (CUI, FISMA, HIPAA). Many services are available to industry and other external entities via service agreement (commercial contract).

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: School of Medicine Microscopy Core

Faculty Director: Binhai Zheng, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Neurosciences

Main Contact: Jennifer Santini, Managing Director

EM & Imaging Specialist: Marcella Erb, Ph.D.

Department: Neurosciences

Description: The School of Medicine Microscopy and Histology Core is a state-of-the-art imaging center that is available to UC San Diego and non-UC San Diego investigators on a recharge basis. The core is a Leica Center of Excellence which works in collaboration with Leica Microsystems. The core offers access to microscopy instrumentation and analysis software as well as scientific and technical expertise. The core provides access to technology ranging from widefield microscopy to electron microscopy, including innovative super resolution and confocal systems. Histology services are limited to array tomography, CLARITY and electron microscopy preparations for serial block face microscopy. For a full list of core instrumentation and capabilities, please visit the website.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: SIO Hydraulics Lab

Contact: Robert Kildy, Shop Superintendent

Alt. Contact: Travis Thomas, Shop Superintendent

Department: Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Description: The function of the Hydraulics Laboratory is to provide expertise, space, facilities, and equipment for physical and biological oceanographic research. The Hydraulics Laboratory offers many testing facilities including a wind-wave channel, two flow channels, three pressure testing vessels, a deep tank, and a temperature/pressure calibration facility. An on-site machine shop, welding equipment, fabrication tools, and the in house expertise to use them greatly enhance the capability of the laboratory to serve a wide variety of scientific projects and research. The Hydraulics Laboratory also maintains a small pool of field instruments that can be made available to researchers. Custom: Wind Wave Channel, Glass Walled Wave Channel, Deep Tank (10m deep), Stratified Flow Channel, Pressure Test Chambers, Temperature/Pressure Calibration Facility, Rotating Table Facility, Ocean Atmosphere Research Pressure Facility, Ocean Atmosphere Research Pool, field instruments, machine, welding, and fabrication resources.

Active Recharge: Yes

Faculty Director: Dan Rudnick, Professor

Alt. contact: Jeffrey Sherman

Department: Climate Atmospheric Science & Physical Oceanography

Description: Design, construction and operation of a range of oceanographic instruments including ones based on autonomous profiling floats and underwater gliders.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: SIO Marine Sciences Development Center

Facility Director: Rob Klidy, Shop Superintendent

Alt. contact:  Travis Thomas (Weld Shop)

Department: Marine Sciences Development Center, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Description: The Marine Science Development Center (MSDC) specializes in the design, development, fabrication, and assembly of oceanographic, space, and general scientific hardware from minute laser components to large-scale integrated systems. MSDC serves SIO, UCSD, various other institutions, and the private sector. Truly a one stop shop, we offer our clients a wide range of services that include, but are not limited to, the following: Additive Manufacturing, Engineering, Machining, Fabrication – in house and in the field, X-ray certified welding, Inspection, Assembly, Surface coating, High vacuum expertise and Field support. MSDC services are available on Marketplace, but please feel free to contact the office directly at (858) 534-2940 with any inquiries.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: SIO Research Vessels

Faculty Director: Bruce Appelgate, SIO Associate Director

Alt. contact: Zoltan Kelety (Marine Superintendent) and Lee Ellett (Marine Technical Support)

Department: Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Description: Scripps Institution of Oceanography operates major seagoing oceanographic research vessels, which are managed and available as general shared-use facilities. Each vessel features state-of-the-art research instrumentation, communications equipment and laboratory facilities equipped to study the biology, physics, chemistry and geology of the world's oceans on cruises that may be as short as one day or as long as two months at sea. Scripps ships are home-ported at the UCSD/SIO Nimitz Marine Facility in Point Loma, and are managed by Scripps's Ship Operations & Marine Technical Support (SOMTS) as shared-use facilities in collaboration with the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), which provides an organizational framework through which scientists and research programs are matched with appropriate research vessels.

Active Recharge: Yes

Faculty Director: Chris Charles (ccharles@ucsd.edu) for MAT253

Faculty Director: Dave Hilton (drhiltons@ucsd.edu) for DeltaPlus, CHN

Alternate Contact: Bruce Deck (bdeck@ucsd.edu)

Department: SIO

Description: The facility includes two stable isotope mass spectrometers (for high precision measurement of ³C, ¹⁵N, ¹⁸O) and a CHN elemental analyzer. A Thermofinnigan DeltaPlus stable isotope mass spectrometer can be interfaced with either a combustion analyzer or gas bench for DIC/carbonate samples. A ThermoFisher MAT253 mass spectrometer provides comparable analyses with a Kiel IV carbonate device. A Costech 4010 Elemental combustion analyzer is also available for determination of C% and N% of organic and inorganic solid samples.

Recharge: No current recharge

Website: SSPPS NMR Facility

Facility Director: Brendan Duggan, Associate Project Scientist

Department: Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Description: The Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences NMR facility provides access to nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers.  The facility houses two 600 MHz NMR spectrometers each consisting of a 14.1 Telsa Magnex magnet, a Bruker Avance III console and a Bruker cryoplatform.  One instrument is normally fitted with a 1.7mm inverse detection triple resonance (H-C/N/D) cryoprobe for analysis of microgram quantities of material.  The other instrument is typically fitted with a 5mm inverse detection triple resonance (H-C/N/D) cryoprobe to acquire data on proteins and nucleic acids.  Access to the facility is available to all UCSD researchers on a recharge basis, as well as external entities.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: Stem Cell Genomics and Microscopy Core

Facility Director: Elsa Molina, Director

Department: UC San Diego Stem Cell Program and Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine

Description: The Genomics and Microscopy Core is a genomics and imaging facility located at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, La Jolla. The Core’s mission is to promote cutting-edge technologies and make them available to every scientist. Self and full services are proposed, and some instruments are available 24/7 for trained users. The facility is specialized in digital Gene Expression assay (nanoString nCounter), single-cell library prep (10x Genomics chromium, Fluidigm C1), sample QC (TapeStation, Qubit), and imaging (Zeiss LSM780 confocal, Keyence BZ-X800), and more! Access to Core's instrumentation is open to all UC San Diego affiliates as well as off-campus researchers and private companies.

Active Recharge: Yes

Faculty Director: Laurance Berman, Operations Mgr 

Department: Jacobs School of Engineering

Description: The Structural Systems Laboratory has a 15 m high reaction wall for the full scale pseudo-dynamic testing of up to 5-story buildings with 10 degrees-of-freedom or bridge systems with 35 m in length.

Active Recharge: No

Website: VA/VMRF Core for Micro Imaging

Faculty Director: Mark Murphy, Assoc Clin Prof

Alt. contact: Jennifer Massie

Department: Orthopaedic Surgery, VASDHS, VMRF

Description: The Core Microscope Facility located in the VA Medical Center in San Diego is a full service microscope facility serving the entire UCSD, VA and Biotech community. We are a fee-for-service lab that can perform Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), confocal microscopy and histology. We have recently added an image processing computer loaded with Image Pro Plus and ImageJ. In the future we will be adding a micro CT to our list of services. Core equipment includes Zeiss EM10C, Zeiss LSM 510, Zeiss LSM 5 Pascal, Leica Ultra-cut S ultramicrotome, Zeiss Photomicroscope 3, GE eXplore Rs micro CT, and a Leica CM 3050S.

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: VA/VMRF FACS Core

Faculty Director: Jessica Wang-Rodriguez, Professor

Alt. contact: Fran Keller

Department: Pathology, VASDHS, VMRF

Description: Core provides measurement of human B and T cell populations.  T-Cell Subsets, including Adult and Pediatric ACTG (AIDS Clinical Trial Group) protocols, AEHIV quantitation. Additional custom tailored markers and flow studies, i.e. intracellular cytokine per request of PI. Core equipment includes 2 BD FACSCaliburs, and 2 BD FACSCantos (6 color and 8 color).

Active Recharge: Yes

Website: VA/VMRF Muscle Tissue Core

Faculty Director: Ted Ciaraldi, Research Scientist 

Department: Medicine, VASDHS, VMRF

Description: VA/VMRF Muscle Tissue Core provides culture of human muscle cells, primary culture of human adipose tissue and muscle cells, assay of metabolic fluxes in cells and tissues, determination of glucose specific activity from infusion of labeled glucose, and multiplex analysis of factors in the circulation and media. Equipment includes a Bio-Rad BioPlex 200. 

Active Recharge: No

Website: VA/VMRF Synthetic Chemistry Core

Faculty Director: Robert Purdy

Department: VASDHS, VMRF

Description: VA/VMRF Synthetic Chemistry Core provides research services for investigators studying the physiological function of neurosteroids in the central nervous system and peripheral tissues. Neurosteroid compounds and their analogs are synthesized to a high degree of purity for peripheral and central administration to sub-human primates and rodents.

Active Recharge: No

Faculty Director: Peter Otto, Music Tech Dir

Department: Music

Description: Warren Recording Studios provides two large recording studios (each measuring 50' x 60'), control room (20'x30'), isolated machine room, seminar room, and two practice studios.

Active Recharge: No

Website: X-ray Crystallography

Faculty Director: Joshua Figueroa, Professor

Facility Manager: Milan Gembicky, PhD, Development Engineer

Department: Chemistry & Biochemistry

Description: Core provides single-crystal and powder characterization of small molecules and macromolecular materials including the determination of absolute-stereochemistry.  Provides crystallization services for APIs and other materials of interest.  Core equipment for single-crystal determinations includes a Bruker Cu rotating-anode generator with two diffractometers, a Bruker APEX II Ultra equipped with a  microfocus Mo Turbo X-ray Source (TXS) rotating anode, and a Bruker X8 APEX II system (Mo sealed tube). All single-crystal diffractometers are equipped with low-temperature cryostats.  For powder diffraction a Bruker D8 Advance is available.

Active Recharge: Yes