History: The Genomics Core Laboratory was established at the Institute of Arctic Biology in 1995 with a grant from the National Science Foundation (Instrumentation and Instrument Development Program). It is a staffed facility intended to keep UAF at the "cutting edge" of nucleic acid analysis in evolutionary biology, molecular biology, and wildlife and fisheries management. UAF has been the beneficiary of NSF EPSCoR, NIH BRIN (INBRE), and an NIH COBRE grants, parts of which have been designated for genomic instrumentation. Over the last few years the Core Facility has grown from having only one ABI 373 slab gel sequencer to having an Illumina MiSeq and Oxford NanoPore MinION sequencers. The Core Lab maintains several other major pieces of instrumentation and various supporting equipment. See Equipment listing on our website for more information on instruments.

Services: The Core Facility provides nucleic acid sample analysis, and maintenance and support for molecular instruments (some of which may be too expensive for individual labs to own) for both UAF and outside users. The Core Lab facilitates learning by hosting training workshops and seminars for instrumentation and techniques to help students, faculty, and staff learn to use available equipment. The Core Lab also provides tours to middle and high school students/teachers, undergraduate students, graduate students, research staff, faculty candidates, and local or out of state visitors. The Core Lab has also been involved in several undergraduate/graduate classes offered by the Biology Department and the Chemistry Department. See Services and Fees on our website for more information on lab services.

Users and Research: Of all facilities at UAF, the Core Facility may have the broadest interdisciplinary focus, since it attracts users from more than twenty PI labs from seven departments at UAF and UAA, the Alaska Sea Life Center, visiting students and scholars from Sweden, Russia, the Czech Republic, China, Russia, Thailand, Chile and others. See Past and Present Research for more information.

Core Optical Imaging Facility is committed to make available state-of-the-art imaging technology to investigators on the UTHSCSA campus and neighboring scientific community. High-end instrumentation for acquisition and analysis of optical data is expensive and requires continued maintenance and improvements. The necessary commitment to this technology is often difficult to maintain within individual laboratories, especially when optical imaging is not a major focus for the laboratory. Therefore, the Core Optical Imaging Facility fills a critical need of UTHSCSA investigators and neighboring scientific community by offering, access to state-of-the-art technology for imaging of living cells, tissues, and animals, consultation, education and assistance regarding the theory and application of optical imaging techniques, technical advice on specimen preparation techniques and probe selection.