Provides cancer researchers access to a centralized state-of-the-art small animal imaging core facility at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Provides researchers with access to cutting-edge technologies and expertise to enable the translation of their research into new treatments for cancers.

Develops animal models that can be used to test new therapies in children whose cancer has relapsed or who are from minority groups that typically have not responded well to current treatments.

Supports the identification of novel genetic risk factors and gene-environment interactions important in understanding cancer susceptibility among children and adolescents, particularly among the diverse patient population in Texas.

Provides high-throughput technologies to cancer scientists in the state of Texas.

Provides standardized, high-quality services to support translational research, including pre-analytical biospecimen single cell processing and isolation procedures, as well as analytical technologies that deliver a systems-oriented perspective on the composition of a sample. Analyses focus on single-cell genomics, targeted gene expression in cell populations, and single-cell proteomics. Services tailored for characterization of single cells include the following platforms: immunofluorescence micromanipulator manual single cell isolation, C1 automated single-cell isolation/processing system, Biomark microfluidic PCR, and the Helios CYTOF mass cytometry platform, and atomic force microscopy for nanophysical characterization of cells. Single-cell based informatics services are also available.

The Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core (FCCIC) is home to the complementary resources of flow cytometery and confocal microscopy. The personnel and equipment in these cores aid researchers as they identify, isolate and quantify cancer and normal cell subsets as well as image cells and their constituent molecules in situ.

Our facility is a regional NGS resource in central Texas that supports innovative and high-impact cancer research requiring extensive NGS DNA- or RNA-sequencing capabilities. Our NGS facility is built around a user group of over 40 cancer researchers from MD Anderson Science Park and Houston campuses, UT Austin, UT Medical School at Houston, Baylor College of Medicine, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Texas A&M Health Science Center-Houston, Rice University, and Texas State University–San Marcos. Other qualified researchers in the Central Texas Region can access services of the NGS Facility, subject to availability of time on the sequencers. We have established several sequencing protocols, including protocols for low-input samples and their associated bioinformatics pipelines. We continue to add new capabilities based on the research needs of our user group

Provides state-wide support and service to advance lead antibodies from academic laboratories to the stage of preclinical development.

In addition to educating medical professionals and providing excellent health care Texas Tech University Health Science Center's mission statement includes "advancing knowledge through innovative research". This CPRIT grant application is focused on updating and modernizing the infrastructure at TTUHSC so that our cancer researchers have state of the art equipment and facilities to carry out the important work of understanding the mechanisms of cancer as a disease and to investigate and develop treatments for specific adult and childhood cancers.

To fully realize the potential of cancer research laboratories at TTUHSC, including a national repository for childhood cancer, a facility dedicated specifically for animal models of cancer is required. The creation of a core facility at TTUHSC will enhance and improve ongoing research projects and facilitate collaborations between the Lubbock, Amarillo, and Abilene campuses. This grant application seeks to support such a facility so as to provide a state-of-art animal facility for the housing, care, and maintenance of special mice that lack an immune system and can grow human tumors used in cancer research. The core will provide imaging to enable investigators to detect and characterize human tumors growing in the special mice and instruments for measuring changes in the blood of the mice from testing experimental anti-cancer drugs.

The requested core will support many TTUHSC cancer research labs working on cancer biology and cancer drug testing and will also support a national resource laboratory located at TTUHSC Lubbock, the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation Childhood Cancer Repository (www.COGcell.org), which provides models of childhood cancer to investigators in 26 countries, including 70 investigators from 11 Texas academic institutions. Thus, this core supports a number of CPRIT goals, including the priority CPRIT has placed on childhood cancer research.

UTHealth Cancer Genomics Core provides the state-of-the-art sequencing facilities, customized project design, advanced bioinformatics analysis service, and training and outreach activities to cancer investigators in the UTHealth, Texas Medical Center, and across the Texas regions. The Core assists many investigators, especially those with small to moderate sample size in their research, and clinical programs with the adoption of cutting-edge genome technologies in the rapidly emerging cancer precision medicine.

Provides Illumina next generation sequencing (HiSeq, NextSeq and MiSeq platforms) for researchers both inside and outside the Institute, including the University, other academic institutions and companies.