Facility Details

The Laboratory for Clinical Biochemistry Research (LCBR) is housed in the Colchester Research Facility (CRF) of the College of Medicine, three miles from the main campus. The LCBR is under the coordination of Dr. Russell P. Tracy, and includes the independent research activities of Drs. Tracy, Cushman, Huber, Jenny, and Doyle and approximately 25 technicians, students and Fellows. The LCBR is staffed by an administrative assistant (Ms. Pam Burton) and an overall laboratory coordinator (Ms. Elaine Cornell); it encompasses 6,668 sq ft broken out as laboratory space (2847 sq ft), office and ancillary space such as cold rooms (2071 sq ft), and freezer storage space (1200 sq ft). The laboratory houses equipment and personnel engaged in clinical and pre-clinical cardiovascular research, in three general areas: 1) large scale epidemiological studies, 2) clinical trials, and 3) animal models. In the first two areas we engage in assay development and large scale assay work in many areas, with emphasis on coagulation, inflammation and fibrinolysis. Measurements are made in blood, urine and DNA samples. Assays are done for phenotypes as well as genotypes using equipment such as automated microtiter plate readers, Dade Behring BNII nephelometer, automated coagulation instruments (Stago STA-R), Roche Integra 400 and Roche Elecsys 2010, Bio-Rad BioPlex Protein Array System for bead-based Luminex technology, MesoScale Discovery Multi-array analyzer, Beckman Coulter LH 500, Tosoh Hematology analyzer, PCR thermocyclers, ABI Prism 7900 for automated, taqman-based SNP analysis. In the third area, we focus on mouse models of atherosclerosis and the roles of inflammation and immunity in development of early lesions (fatty streaks), using different strains of mice, and various transgenic and knock-out animals.
The LCBR provides an excellent facility for assay performance, whether the assays be clot based, chromogenic, immunometric or nucleic acid-based. All assays are performed under strict quality assurance standards, and a complete procedure manual is available. Over the last 18 years, we have measured samples from over 70,000 people, and our Sample Repository currently houses ~140 freezers with a total inventory of over 3 million aliquots of serum, plasma, urine, cryopreserved white cells and isolated DNA. In these samples are pre-prepared sample sets for establishing normal ranges, examining biovariability, and developing DNA-based assays (with anonymized samples).