Cell Circuits and Immunology Core

CELL CIRCUITS AND IMMUNOLOGY CORE: PROJECT SUMMARY The Cell Circuits and Immunology Core will be co-directed by Andrew Luster and Shiv Pillai. Core services are comprised of routine immunology tools, specialized immunology services, and education and training designed to facilitate studies of the human immune system. The Core maintains a commitment to the development and implementation of methods to facilitate immune monitoring and define laboratory correlates of clinical observations. Routine immunological tools offered by the Core include flow cytometry, high-speed cell sorting, Luminex bead assays, and multiplex cytokine and chemokine arrays. The Core strives to provide access to cutting edge tools to drive progress in digestive disease and mucosal immunology research. To this end, a number of specialized services are offered to Center members, including generation of MHC I and II tetramers and novel pathway-based computational approaches combined with CRISPR screens. As a result of development and implementation of groundbreaking methods for single cell genomic profiling (e.g., single nucleus RNA-seq and Perturb-Seq) as well as the recent establishment of a single cell facility, investigators have access to the tools necessary for profiling immune cells across tissues at high resolution. Recently developed high-definition spatial transcriptomics and multiplexed RNA FISH techniques allow investigators to analyze the spatial distribution of transcriptomic data. As part of its commitment to education and training, the Core provides consultations and instruction on experimental design of immunological assays, method implementation, and bioinformatics analysis. The CCI Core strives to enhance cohesion between basic immunology, translational and clinical aspects of IBD towards the goal of understanding the basic mechanisms underlying inflammation and autoimmunity. The specific aims of the Cell Circuits and Immunology Core are to (1) provide CSIBD members with access to immunological resources that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive to individual researchers; (2) offer CSIBD investigators access to cutting-edge immunological techniques that are at the forefront of immunology research; and (3) promote the development of junior investigators and foster collaborations by providing a connection point between investigators of varying research approaches.