Core Research Facilities

A National Eye InstituteCore Grant for Vision Research provides the state-of-the-art research equipment and technical expertise that is essential for the rapid advancement vision science research and its sophisticated demands. Our department’s researchers have high-technology resources accessible to them, ranging from advanced deconvolution and confocal microscopy, SELDI mass spectroscopy and real time PCR, to dedicated tissue culture and morphology services. A machine shop provides on-site mechanical engineering expertise for the design and construction of custom-built apparatus.

There are four modules in the Core Research Facilities :

• Cell Biology
• Imaging and Digital Analysis
• Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
• Machine Shop

All four modules are housed within the Lions of Illinois Eye Research Institute, the major site of vision research on the UIC campus. As the second-longest, continually funded NEI core grant in the nation – first awarded in 1978 and now in its 26 th year – the Core Research Facilities are the cornerstone for vision science at UIC.

Nalin Kumar, PhD serves as principal investigator of the NEI award and overall director of the Core Research Facilities. Dr. Kumar joined the Department of Ophthalmology in 2001 and has studied gap junctions for over 20 years, using a combination of cell, structural and molecular biological methods. Julie Daraska, MA assists him with administration of the grant. Ms. Daraska has over 15 years of administrative experience in higher education, in project management, communications and grant administration.