Equipment and instrumentation:

1) CLAMS units with 16 cages each (Columbus Instruments) for the real-time monitoring of whole animal metabolism. VO2consumption, VCO2 production and locomotor activity are measured.

2) Minispec LF-50/mq 7.5 NMR (Brucker Optics) analyzer for the non-invasive assessment of body composition of wake mice.

3) BioDAQ system (Research Diets) for the accurate monitoring of food and liquid intake or preference.

4) DSI Telemetry Systems (Data Sciences International) for the in-vivo, real time and wireless monitoring of locomotor activity, temperature and sleep profiles.

5) MC4000 blood pressure and heart rate analyzer for mice (Tailcuff method, Hatteras Instruments).

6) Cobas c311 clinical chemistry analyzer for quantitations of a number of biomarkers and metabolites. Glucose, cholesterol, TAG, LDL, HDL, liver transaminases, albumin, C-reactive protein, bilirubin, drugs of abuse (cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol and others), ammonia, creatinine are some examples.

7) A GM7 analyzer (Analox instruments). Quantitates glucose, glutamine, creatinine, urea, ketone bodies, glycerol, cholesterol, triglycerides, lactate, pyruvate and more in blood or plasma samples

8) A Luminex 200 (Luminex Coorporation). Allows quantitation of metabolic hormones (Insulin, Glucagon, GIP, Ghrelin, Adiponectin, Leptin and more), cytokines (TNF-a, IL-1b, IL-1, IL-6, Interferons, more) and protein-protein interactions in multiplex format. The Luminex performs flow cytometric quantification of fluorescent bead-bound antibody antigen complexes. Assays can be fully customized to include any combination of antibodies (up to 100).

9) 24 and 96-wells Seahorse analyzers (Seahorse Biosciences). The Seahorse instrument monitors aerobic respiration from isolated mitochondria or aerobic respiration and glycolysis from cells in real time.

10) A Leica CM1950 Cryostat

11) An AR-2000 radio-TLC Imaging Scanner (Eckert & Ziegler) for the detection of radiolabeled compounds in TLC plates.