Core facilities are essential to the development of a research institute dedicated to the translation of discoveries into patient treatment. BIIR scientists rely on eight cores to support their research:

 

Cell & Tissue Procurement Core: This core receives patient blood samples, which are processed, phenotyped, and frozen. The samples are blinded using accession numbers and entered into a database. The Core also processes volunteer and patient apheresis, generating WBC specific fractions. These fractions can be used in research experiments or vaccine production. Tissue samples such as melanoma samples are also received in this core and cultured to establish cell lines for research. 

 

Flow Cytometry Core: The facility includes:

• Three FACS Canto II™ with three lasers and equipped with 2 HTS and a carousel
• Two FACS ARIA™: one with four lasers and thirteen parameters, and the other with five lasers and fifteen parameters
• One FACS LSR2™ with four lasers, eighteen color analyzer and HTS
• One LSR Fortessa ™ with four lasers, eighteen parameter analyzer and HTS

 

Technical specialists are available for operator assisted sorts.
The Core also assists in flow cytometry phenotyping for clinical trials.

 

GMP Cell Core: The DC vaccine product is manufactured in a dedicated GMP facility on the first floor of the BIIR building. Materials used to construct the Room #105 GMP Facility were selected to provide smooth surfaces, corrosion resistance, and of a quality to facilitate sanitization. Only authorized personnel have access into the GMP Facility through doors controlled by electronic badge readers.

 

Imaging Core: The facility includes:

• Olympus upright digital imaging system with Metamorph software for epi-flourescence or DIC of fixed cells and tissues
• Olympus inverted digital imaging system with incubator, Metamorph software for epi-flourescence or phase contrast imaging of live cells and tissues
• Nikon Perfect Focus inverted digital imaging system for live cell work, whole tissues or whole mouse sections as pioneered by Dr. M. Jenkins
• Leica CM 3600 whole animal cryostat with Cryo-Jane tape transfer system for whole mouse sectioning
• Leica CM3050S standard cryostat for tissue sectioning
• Olympus BX60 with Nikon DXM1200C color digital camera system for histological stained cells or tissues
• One Xenogen IVIS, luciferase-based equipment for  live-animal imaging
• One inverted Leica SP-5 confocal for fixed or live cell confocal microscopy

 

Immunomonitoring Core: The goals of the Immunomonitoring Core Facility:

• Monitoring patients irrespective of HLA subtype
• Measuring T cell immunity against antigens whose epitopes are unknown
• Determining type of T cell responses

 

This facility performs flow cytometry, ELISA, ELISPOT, CTL assays and EPIMAX.

 

Developed at BIIR, EPIMAX is a non-destructive assay that is used to measure immune responses:

• across HLA haplotypes.
• towards many antigens, allowing the analysis of a broad melanoma-specific repertoire.
• by multiplex analysis of secreted cytokines, allowing the identification of the type of induced specific immunity.
• and allows assessment of specific proliferation, thus addressing the quality of elicited T cells.

 

Molecular Biology Core: This facility includes:

• One ABI 7700 Real-Time PCR
• One Affymetryx Suite which includes an Agilent Analyzer, a complete Affymetryx station and a LIMS system utilizing an Oracle database
• One robotic Illumina Bead Station

 

The Monoclonal Antibody Core has the following responsibilities based on requests by BIIR scientists : 1) develop new monoclonal antibodies against antigens of interest; 2) prepared pure antibodies from cultured hybridomas; 3) labeling pure antibodies; and 4) making recombinant antibodies from outside collaborators. In addition, the Core supports the DC-targeting vaccine programs by development of stable CHO-S cell lines expressing diverse anti-DC receptor-antigen fusion proteins and the associated purification and quality assurance for DC receptor binding of these prototype vaccines. The Core hosts the Institute’s multiplexed bead-based cytokine assay service, including making custom antibody pairs to reduce costs. Lastly, the Core has developed and provides multiplexed bead-based antigen-specific antibody assays.

 

Multiplex Luminex® Core

 

Sample Core:

Our work begins with Baylor researchers and outside collaborators to comply with research regulatory pieces in all federal, state and local guidelines which involve animal and human subjects.  Once we have established this regulatory base, we coordinate the shipment, receipt, or collection of biological samples.  The focus then turns to the biorepository responsibilities of our core.  Within these responsibilities lies the management of accessibility and distribution/disposition of these biological specimens.

 

Currently, the core is directly involved with the collection/accession of the over 25 independent studies, and the level of our involvement ranges from processing, storage and inventory to distribution across various labs at the institute.  Using state-of-the-art software, FreezerWorks™, we are able to maintain an inventory of over 80,000 samples housed in -20°C, -80°C, and liquid nitrogen storage locations.  On a daily basis, we receive shipments from national and international collaborations and must maintain multiple CDC and Fish and Wildlife export and import permits.