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University of Maryland - Medicine Institute for Neuroscience Discovery (UM-MIND)
InstitutesUniversity of Maryland - Medicine Institute for Neuroscience Discovery (UM-MIND)Resources

Resources

Resources within UM-MIND

Biomedical Illustration Services:

Sample scientific illustrations from biomedical illustrator Tina WangUM-MIND is pleased to partner with Tina Wang, MA, a biomedical illustrator offering services in scientific illustrations, animations, graphic design and content writing to those in the UM-MIND community, free of charge. View samples of Tina’s works here. 

Have a project? Reach out to tiwang@som.umaryland.edu with a brief description of what you’re looking for as well as any required deadlines, and Tina will assist.

Resources available through CIBR

Research at UMSOM is support by cutting-edge core facilities housed within the Center for Innovative Biomedical Resources (CIBR). Through CIBR, UM-MIND researchers have access to numerous state-of-the-art technologies, high-tech instrumentation, and expertise across various domains. These facilities include the following. Cores denoted with “UMGCCC” are housed within the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center, but are open for use by all UMSOM investigators in a fee-for-service model.

Animal Research

  • Musculoskeletal Physiology Service Center: Provides comprehensive outcome measures to assess bone and muscle structure, function, and physiology, e.g. microcomputed tomography (Skyscan 1172 microCT), rotarod, and nerve-evoked muscle function (Aurora Scientific 3-in-1).
  • Red Blood Cell and Hematology Core: Provides services that allow evaluation of red blood cell biochemistry, morphology, physiology, and biophysics, and their effect on vascular regulation and oxygen delivery.
  • Veterinary Resources: Supports the use of animal models of human biology by providing veterinary medical and husbandry services, training in safe handling procedures, species-specific anesthesia support, breeding colony setup/maintenance plans, and full necropsy service and diagnostic testing, among other services.

Bioinformatics, Statistics, and Computing

  • Bioinformatics and Bioinformatics Shared Service (UMGCCC): Provides expertise in “traditional” biostatistics (e.g. study/trial design and multivariable statistical modeling), bioinformatics, high-dimensionality data sets, machine learning, supervised and unsupervised data analysis, mathematical modeling, simulations and more. Software available includes SAS, R, Splus, SPSS, Stata, StatXact, and East.
  • Clinical and Translational Research Informatics Center (CTRIC): Offers services in research design, data management, quality assurance/control, and data analysis, including database creation (SQL server, MySQL, Microsoft Access, etc) and HIPAA-compliant data storage
  • Optum Lab Core (University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing): Provides researchers access to and guidance for utilizing data from the Optum Labs Data Warehouse (OLDW): a comprehensive, real-world database containing de-identified, longitudinal health information on enrollees and patients, representing a mixture of ages and geographical regions across the United States.
  • Pharmaceutical Research Computing (PRC): Offers computer programming, data management, pharmaceutical classifications, and analytic support for health services research and evaluation, including data cleaning, project management, statistical analysis, and programming (SAS, STATA, R, and ArcGIS) consultations.

Clinical Resources

  • Amish Research Clinic (ARC): Supports the Amish Research Program, engaging the Amish community which is ideal for studies due to its common lineage and homogenous lifestyle that makes isolating genes easier for scientists.
  • General Clinical Research Center (GCRC): Provides investigators with resources needed to conduct safe and precise clinical research, including facilities of both inpatient and outpatient data collection and patient care, as well as monitoring and equipment to support phase 1 clinical trials.
  • Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR): Provides free resources, education and training, and grant funding to invigorate, facilitate, and accelerate clinical translational science, including support in areas such as informatics, data management and storage, cybersecurity and AI, participant recruitment, etc.

Cytometric & Bioassay

  • Cytokine Core Laboratory (CCL): Offers an extensive list of human, mouse, and rat cytokine, chemokine, and growth factor assays, with both ELISA and multiplex (Luminex 100 Multi-Analyte System) platforms available.
  • Flow Cytometry Shared Service (FCSS) - UMGCCC: Provides flow cytometers (including two Cytek Aurora Spectral Cytometers, an Amnis FlowSight Imaging Cytometer, a BD Aria II Cell Sorter, and more) to the research community and offers hands-on training on sample acquisition, analysis, troubleshooting, and experimental design.
  • Flow & Mass Cytometry Facility: Offers multichromatic flow cytometry, cell sorting (up to 6-way; Beckman Coulter MoFlo Astrios Cell Sorter), and mass cytometry (>60 parameters; Fluidigm Helios Mass Cytometer) equipment, advice on experimental design, and data analysis.
  • Institute of Human Virology (IHV) Flow Cytometry Core (BSL-3): Specializes in infectious cell sorting with viruses such as HIV, HTLV, hepatitis, influenza, SARS-CoV2, as well as in non-mammalian cells like yeast.
  • Mass Spectrometry Center (MSC): Provides state-of-the-art expertise, methodology, and instrumentation in mass spectrometry for applications in metabolomics, lipidomics, proteomics, LC-MS, drug analysis and PK/PD, mass spectrometry imaging (MSI), hydrogen deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX), and more. 20 instruments are maintained by the MSC including multiple spectrometers from Agilent, Bruker, Thermo, and Waters.
  • Pediatric Biochemical Genetics Lab: Provides biochemical genetics and cytogenetics laboratory testing through both on-site facilities and through partnerships with DNA and other diagnostic labs across the United States.
  • Translational Laboratory Shared Resource (TLSR) - UMGCCC: Offers experimental support to basic researchers and physicians including in vitro assays (e.g. Western blot analysis, apoptosis assays, viability assays), in vivo assays (e.g. Xenogen imaging, patient-derived xenograft models), pharmacodynamic endpoints, and CRISPR services (e.g. gene knockout and gene editing)
  • µQuant Core Facility: Provides immunological analyses of biological analytes, including ELISAs, RT-PCR and qPCR, antibody production and purification, protein purification, and cell culture.

Drug Development & Clinical Trial Support

  • Applied Pharmaceutics Lab (APhL): Provides expertise and resources for pharmaceutical pre-formulation, formulation development, analytical methods development, and testing for both research and discovery (R&D) and good manufacturing practice (GMP) activities.
  • Clinical Pharmacology Unit (CPU): Provides consultation on regulatory submissions and offers scientific input on clinical protocols, clinical development plans, investigator brochures, optimizing phase I-IV study designs and dosing plans, and evaluating clinical trial data.
  • Nanofabrication and Characterization Core: Offers integrated solutions in nanoparticle synthesis, physico-chemical characterization, wet-chemistry support, drug release studies, stability studies, nanoparticle tracking analysis, and electrophoretic potential measurements.
  • Quality Management Systems (QMS) Office: Provides training, document management, and auditing expertise for studies that require either Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) or Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certification to adhere to governmental regulations.

Histology, Pathology, and Biobanks

  • Pathology Biorepository Shared Resource (PBSR) - UMGCCC: Provides pathology, histology, and histotechnology services and assists with procurement, analyses, and clinicopathologic correlations of human tissue specimens removed at surgery on the UMM campus.
  • Pathology Histology Core (PHC): Provides histology services for both animal and human tissues, including tissue sectioning (frozen and paraffin-embedded, as well as oversized tissue sectioning) and processing (H&E staining)
  • University of Maryland Brain and Tissue Bank (UMBTB): One of six brain and tissue banks that are part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Neurobiobank network. The UMBTB collects and distributes tissues from donors with disorders of the nervous system as well as controls lacking any clinical brain diagnosis.
  • UMM Biorepository: Offers biospecimen banking services for clinical and basic samples using the Hamilton Biorepository (BiOS) Freezer System (equipped to accommodate over 945,000 biospecimens), inventory management and sample retrieval, and sample processing (e.g. sample aliquoting, DNA/RNA extraction) services.

Imaging Technologies

  • Core for Translational Research in Imaging (CTRIM) - UMGCCC: Provides services for in-vivo and ex-vivo cross-sectional and functional imaging using MRI, MR-g-FUS, PET, and CT, as well as all necessary image-processing support. Capabilities also exist to build custom-made coils for specific applications. Instruments include: Bruker BiospecAvance III 7T and 9.4T Small Animal MRI, Siemens Inveon Small Animal PET-CT, Xenogen IVIS Spectrum Optical in vivo Imagin System, MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound System
  • Confocal Microscopy Core (CMC) - UMGCCC: Provides equipment and expertise to assist investigators in applying advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques to their research. Instruments include: Abberior Facility Line STED, Zeiss LS7 Lightsheet, Nikon W1 Spinning Disk, Nikon A1 Laser Confocal, Zeiss 710 NLO & Zeiss 7MP, Zeiss 5Live & Zeiss 510, Olympus LCV Incubated Microscope, and free access to Imaris Bitplane software.
  • Electron Microscopy Core Imaging Facility (EMCIF): Provides electron microscopy-related research and imaging services and training, including convention SEM, convention TEM, cryo-sample preparation for TEM and SEM, immuno-EM, correlative LM/EM (CLEM), and 3D EM. Instruments include: Tecnai T12 TEM, Quanta 200 SEM, and Keyence BZX all-in-one fluorescence microscope.

Nucleic Acids & Genomics

  • CRISPR Core, hosted within the Translational Laboratory Shared Resource (TLSR): Facilitates access to gene editing technologies and provides a centralized resource for rapidly emerging CRISPR technologies, including generation of genetically validated knockout cell lines, generation of validated cell lines containing desired mutations and SNPs, and other gene editing services.
  • Cytogenetics Laboratory: Provides comprehensive cytogenetic diagnosis using karyotyping, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and SNP-microarray analyses on multiple sample types including peripheral blood, bone marrow, fibroblasts and tissues.
  • Maryland Genomics: Offers high-throughput, cost-effective sequencing (e.g. DNA/RNA extraction, library preparation, bulk RNA-seq, single cell sequencing, ATAC-Seq, microbiome service) and analysis services (e.g. assembly and annotation, variant analysis, pathway and network analysis). Platforms include Illumina, PacBio, 10x Genomics, Nanostring, and Oxford Nanopore.
  • Translational Genomics Laboratory (TGL) - UMGCCC: Provides DNA sequencing, genotyping, and array-based technologies (e.g. Sanger sequencing, NGS gene panels, and miRNA expression profiling) in both a basic research and clinically-regulated environment.
  • Viral Vector Core (VVC): Offers adeno-associated virus (AAV) and lentivirus-based gene delivery systems to be used to target a gene of interest in in vitro and in vivo studies. This includes generation of ready-to-use pre-made viruses available for immediate pick-up, as well as production and validation of custom viruses, including CRISPR-based and inducible systems for targeted and conditional manipulation of gene expression.

Structural Biology

  • Biosensor Core (BSC): Provides technology (Biacore 3000 and Biacore T200 instruments) for the quantitative study of binding reactions in real time as well as user-friendly software for curve-fitting and extraction of kinetic constants.
  • Structural Biology Shared Resource - UMGCCC: Provides equipment, services, and expertise in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, target validation and screening (TVS), protein engineering and biophysics (PEB), and medicinal chemistry (MC). Instruments include:
      • NMR: Avance III 600 MHz, Avance 800 MHz, and Avance III 950 MHz NMR spectrometers all equipped with cryoprobes.
      • X-Ray Crystallography: Rigaku MSC Micromax 7, R-Axis IV++ and Oxford cryosystem, FLUOstar Optima multi-detection microplate reader.
      • Target Validation & Screening: Bechman-Coulter Biomek FX Laboratory Workstation and Biomek NXp, BMG FluoroStar and Polar Star microplate readers, and Bruker 600, 800, and 950 MHz NMR spectrometers. 60,781 small drug like compounds are also available, including the ChemDiv 40K, Maybridge HitFinder, MicroSource Spectrum, and SBi Collections.
      • Protein Engineering & Biophysics: equipment for cell growth, harvest, and purification, including incubators, fermenters, centrifuges, sonicators, HPLCs, flourimeters, and calorimeters.

Additional resources available at UMB

  • BIORESCO (Biomedical Research Supply Core): Central supply core facility for university, enabling researchers to “do science” instead of procurement and accounting
  • HS/HSL Innovation Space: Offers consultations with a librarian, 3D printing services, electronics kits, anatomical models, poster printing, and more.
  • Intercultural Center: Develops programs to educate and encourage dialogue across the entire University community on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-racism, and interculturalism.
  • UM Ventures: Serves investigators in the technology transfer and commercialization process, including assistance with intellectual property (IP) protection and maintenance and commercialization.
  • Well-Being at UMB: Provides resources in the areas of wellness, work-life balance, and self-care for UMB students, faculty, and staff.