Molecular Neuroscience and Imaging Core

The overall goal of the UMMC Balance and Auditory Research Center (BARC) is to employ and expand innovative molecular, cellular, and physiological approaches to the study of balance and hearing to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic breakthroughs and provide advanced training and mentorship opportunities for students, residents, and junior faculty. The Molecular Neuroscience and Imaging Core (Core B) will serve BARC-affiliated faculty, the larger university-wide research community, and other IDeA supported faculty by pursuing two major aims. Core B will be divided into two arms- a molecular neuroscience arm and an imaging arm. In Aim 1, Core B will provide centralized support for mouse line genotyping and sperm isolation/cryopreservation for mouse line protection. One of the main activities of the Molecular Neuroscience arm is expected to be providing support for genotyping mutant mouse lines used in experiments. Emphasis will be on performing genotyping PCR reactions quickly and inexpensively, lessening the burden of lab technicians and students. A second main activity for the molecular neuroscience arm will be to fill a much-needed gap in protecting irreplaceable elements of many research programs- the mice themselves. Currently, while all investigators should protect their mouse lines via some sort of cryopreservation, few have the capital to rigorously preserve all lines, and many do not have the ability to protect any lines. Critically, by ensuring novel mouse lines created and maintained by BARC faculty, faculty of the wider UMMC institution outside BARC, and IDeA participants are protected against catastrophic events often witnessed in the Deep South region of the US (hurricane, tornado, extended power outages) via offering sperm cryopreservation and long-term storage at extremely affordable prices, the Core B molecular neuroscience arm will further enhance future reproducibility of experiments. In Aim 2, Core B will provide centralized support for specialized sample preparation, imaging and final image analysis as a partner with each lab. This aim will be pursued by the second arm of Core B- the Imaging arm. The Imaging arm will support specimen preparation, data gathering, and image analysis via standard, confocal, and electron microscopy imaging and post-acquisition image analysis. Altogether, Core B will provide a pipeline by which technical support from the Core can be leveraged by each participating lab to effectively shift efforts from students and technicians involved in the routine analysis of mouse genotypes and sample preparation for imaging to efforts more directly aligned with running and analyzing final outcomes of experiments.