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PRIMARY
TRL FACILITY
The UIC-TRL maintains its 13 offices, 2 conference rooms and primary laboratory space on 5 floors (floors 10-14) in the UIC College of Medicine East Tower. The GLP dosage formulation laboratory occupies 250 square feet and is secured by a key-card from all unauthorized access. The GLP dosage formulation laboratory is used to prepare all solutions and suspensions for use in GLP studies. Filling of capsules for administration to dogs is also performed in this laboratory facility.
Analytical chemistry laboratory is located next to the dosage formulation laboratory which aids in the immediate analysis of dosage formulation, if necessary. The analytical chemistry laboratory consists of 2 rooms (HPLC laboratory and LC/MS/MS laboratory) of total of 1050 square feet. General Biochemistry/Molecular biology and Tissue/Cell Culture laboratories are located in two rooms on the 11th floor comprising a total of 1050 square feet. One room comprises 550 square feet and primarily supports tissue culture, molecular biology and immunology studies. Another room comprises 500 square feet and is a general biochemistry/molecular biology laboratory for the support of toxicology efficacy research programs. Cold room (130 square feet) and tissue culture environmental controlled room at 37°C (114 square feet) are conveniently located on the 11th floor between these two laboratories. Radiation analysis laboratory is completely isolated and is also located in a close proximity to these labs on the 11th floor. A special BSL-2 compliant laboratory comprises of 300 square feet is set up for vaccine, viruses and bacteria work is located on the 12th floor. As subsequently discussed, the UIC centralized animal facility (which also contains the clinical pathology laboratory and necropsy suite) and the pathology laboratories (on-site Pathology Associates, Intl. facilities) support the UIC-TRL GLP programs.
All test materials under study are stored in the GLP dosage formulation laboratory in accordance with the conditions listed on the Test/Control Article Fact Sheet for that material. Those chemicals that are to be maintained at standard conditions are kept in a locked storage cabinet in this room. Temperature records are kept for refrigerators and freezers which are used to store temperature sensitive test articles. Records are also maintained on all refrigerators, freezers, and balances used by the UIC-TRL.
DATA COLLECTION
AND ANALYSIS
The operations of UIC-TRL are based on several dedicated computers, each best
suited for a range of applications. This results in the analysis of data in
the most timely and cost efficient manner possible. These machines have
access to a mainframe system for computation of extremely large databases.
The commercially available LABCAT on line data collection system utilizing
PCs is used to collect clinical signs/observations, body weight, food
consumption, clinical chemistry, hematology and organ weight data directly
on-line. These data are uploaded to a hard disk at the end of the data
collection procedure. At that time, a hard copy is also printed which is
signed and dated by the appropriate personnel and then placed in the study
notebook. All data are secured daily and archived by Quality Assurance
personnel at the conclusion of the study. The LABCAT data collection program
includes built-in statistical analysis capabilities, with the generation of
report quality summary and individual animal data tables. Additional computer
software programs used by the Toxicology Research Laboratory include Lotus
notes versions 2/3/4, WordPerfect (upto version 8),
Graphwriter, Sci Mate, Systat,
Sygraph, PCNONLIN, Freelance Plus, Borland C++, SlideWrite Plus 2.0 for Windows, Harvard Graphics 98 for
Windows and specially designed statistical analyses programs. SAS, SPSS and
BMDP statistical analyses programs are also available on the University's
mainframe computer system.
ADDITIONAL
DEPARTMENT RESOURCES
As part of the UIC Department of Pharmacology, the UIC-TRL has the use of the
department's instrumentation room located on the fourth floor in the Medical Sciences Building. The room is approximately two
blocks from UIC-TRL. The room (235 sq. ft.) contains the following equipment
which is communal to members of the Department.
2 Beckman LS3801 liquid scintillation counters
LKB 1272 CliniGamma counter
Beckman L8-M ultracentrifuge
JEC PR-7000 large capacity refrigerated centrifuge
LabConco freeze dry system
Market Forge Steri-matic Autoclave
ANIMAL FACILITY
All GLP toxicology studies conducted by the Toxicology Research Laboratory
utilize animal rooms in which temperature and humidity are monitored and
recorded daily. All animals rooms are on a defined
light cycle (typically 14 hour light/10 hour dark). The animal room
temperatures used in the animal facility are within the ranges specified in
the NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, National Research
Council, 1996. Animal facility management includes four ACLAM-certified
veterinarians and 3 - 4 veterinary residents. The facility is organized on
three floors. Each floor of the animal facility is managed by an experienced
ACLAM-certified senior laboratory animal veterinarian and is supported by a
veterinary postdoctoral fellow, a supervisor of laboratory animal care and a
staff of certified animal care technicians. The animal facility is fully
accredited by AAALAC Intl. and has consistently received positive evaluations
from representatives of the Food and Drug Administration, the World Health
Organization, the National Institutes of Health and numerous pharmaceutical
and contract laboratories. It is one of the largest of its type in the
country and has the capacity to house in excess of 10,000 mice, 5,000 rats,
900 guinea pigs, 800 rabbits, 240 dogs, 200 cats, 388 macaques, 170 baboons
and variable numbers of other species such as ferrets and farm animals.
Typical room configurations allow for up to 300 rats, 300 mice, 40 rabbits,
12 dogs, and 48 macaques per room. The lower level contains housing for large
animals, dogs and cats; quarantine rooms for simian primates; the surgical,
radiology and necropsy support services; and the machine shop. The first
floor contains the diagnostic laboratories which includes clinical pathology and the small animal holding and procedural rooms. Each of
these animal rooms contains at least two "Illinois isolation cubicles", a
procedural area and a chronic holding area. The second floor houses the
primate facility including a breeding colony. The colony was established in
1969 to provide time pregnant macaques and baboons. The facility houses three
species of macaques and is one of the country's largest colonies of breeding
baboons. All ventilating air is 100% fresh with approximately 15 air
exchanges per hour. From thirty to thirty five full time and three to six
part time animal caretakers are engaged in various animal husbandry
activities. The majority of these individuals have completed one of the
nationally recognized animal technician certification programs. Continuing
education of all employees is an integral part of the overall commitment of
the administrative staff. The animal husbandry section is scheduled on a
rotating basis to provide appropriate coverage of all areas 365 days a year.
Clinical Pathology Laboratory
The clinical pathology laboratory is located on the first floor of the animal
facility complex and has been supporting the GLP toxicology activities of the
UIC-TRL for 15 years. This laboratory is well equipped for measuring clinical
chemistry, hematology and urinalysis parameters. Major instrumentation in the
laboratory include:
Advia 120 Hematology Analyzer
Sysmex K1000 Hematology Analyzer
Hitachi 704 Clinical Chemistry Analyzer
Ciba-Corning 550 Express Clinical Chemistry Analyzer
IL482 and IL282 Co-Oximeters
IL1306 Blood Gas Analyzer
Ion Specific Electrode Na+/K+ Analyzer
Electra 700 Coagulation Machine
Microbiological tests including fecal examinations are also routinely
conducted by the clinical pathology laboratory. The laboratory maintains
various centrifuges, refrigerators/freezers (including a -700C
freezer) and ancillary laboratory equipment.
NECROPSY FACILITY
A necropsy room within the UIC animal facility is utilized for post mortem
examinations and collection of necropsy samples. The necropsy room contains
sufficient stainless steel tables, necropsy instruments, and necessary
equipment for two simultaneous dog or monkey necropsies, or five simultaneous
rodent or rabbit necropsies. The necropsy room includes down draft large
animal necropsy tables and individual small animal necropsy vented hood
stations. For neuropathology studies, rodents are perfusion fixed within the
vented hoods. Photographic equipment is available in the necropsy room and
provides immediate documentation as well as publication quality examples of
gross necropsy findings.
PATHOLOGY
LABORATORY
The PAI Illinois (Chicago) laboratory is the primary
support facility for all pathology services.
PAI Illinois (Chicago Technology Park) Facility
The PAI Illinois facilities serve as the toxicologic pathology laboratory supporting TRL effort.
The PAI-Illinois facility is located at the UIC Technology Park Research Center, 2201 West Campbell Park Drive, Chicago, Illinois. The laboratory is located on the
UIC campus complex within walking distance of the UIC TRL. This facility
consists of 2500 square feet of laboratory and offices with access to
additional audit/conference rooms, and storage space. The PAI Illinois Laboratory is designed to
accommodate high volume histology production while ensuring complete tissue
accountability and integrity. The Laboratory utilizes an open design with
each histology function (trimming, processing, embedding, microtomy,
staining, coverslipping/labeling, quality control,
and checkout) residing in a specific area. The design facilitates the flow of
materials through each phase of the histology operation and aids in tissue
accountability/case tracking. Additionally, the design and accompanying
sophisticated tissue tracking system provides maximum capacity in the system
without loss of specimen identity.
The PAI Illinois facility operates in full
compliance with Good Laboratory Practice regulations (both FDA and EPA). In
addition, all local, state, and federal environmental and health and safety
regulations are observed as well as health and safety policies established by
PAI for all corporate laboratories.
Molecular and Immunopathology Laboratory
Specialized in immunohistochemistry including cellular kinetics (cell proliferation and apoptosis) and image analysis, tasks are performed in an independent laboratory/office suite within the PAI Maryland complex. This space consisting of approximately 5,000 square feet, is available for TRL within the PAI Maryland (Frederick) Laboratory and should protocols require immunohistochemistry (e.g., cell proliferation studies using PCNA or BrdU) or image analysis. This Laboratory is fully equipped and staffed to provide staining and evaluation of biomarkers to further characterize tissue and cellular responses to test articles.
GLP ARCHIVES
A UIC-TRL Archive is maintained in accordance with Good Laboratory Practices
Regulations for all GLP studies. This includes a working Archives and a
long-term Archives. The Quality Assurance Unit is responsible for its
maintenance and upkeep. The Archives consists of approximately 500 square
feet and contains raw data, wet tissues, slides, tissue blocks, draft study
reports and final study reports. All raw data, specimens and reports are
filed with an inventory. All original protocols, original SOPs, and equipment
maintenance records are also kept in the Archives. PAI maintains its own
Archive facilities.
CLINICAL TRIALS
General Clinical Research Center is a specialized clinical trial
facility at UIC
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Several hundred IRB protocols approved and studies conducted
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Hundreds of UIC professors and top medical
specialists involved in clinical
trials
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Accommodate research subjects of all ages, from newborn to geriatric populations
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Accommodate adult psychiatric subjects, outpatient psychiatry studies
involving children
General Clinical Research Center Facility includes:
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Examination and procedure rooms
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Outpatient area
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Inpatient rooms
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Specimen processing laboratory
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Radioisotope laboratory
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Physiology laboratory
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Adult psychiatry beds
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A metabolic kitchen can provide special diets designed, calculated and
prepared under supervision of the staff dietitian
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A database management system office
Nursing
Staff
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Provides a core of nursing professionals 24/7
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Certified nurses provide drug administration
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Performs all necessary medical procedures and collects data
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Nursing staff also can be sent
to other areas of the hospital/university to collect research data
Laboratory
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Processing of study samples
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Shipping of specimens
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Laboratory clinical chemistry analyses
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A radioisotope laboratory facility available for radioisotope studies.
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-20°C to -80°C refrigeration
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DNA extraction service
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Cell / Tissue incubation
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Cell Separation facilities
Investigational Pharmacy
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Assures appropriate storage, handling, drug accountability,
information access and compliance with
regulations including FDA
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UIC Investigational pharmacist disperses all drugs
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Drugs accessibility 24/7
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Provides blinded medication dosage forms for placebo-controlled
studies
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Aseptically prepares
intravenous products (class 10,000)
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Prepares dietary supplements if
needed
The biostatistics Center provides the following services:
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Study design
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Quantification and measurement
issues
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Mathematical modeling
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Simulation studies
RESEARCH
RESOURCES CENTER
The UIC Research Resources Center (RRC) provides a number of facilities for
the support of UIC research projects. These are as follows.
*UIC
Genomics Laboratory Capacities
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Affymetrix GeneChip
Array Hybridization Scanning and Data Acquisition
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Glass Slide Array Hybridization
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Real-time Quantitative RT-PCR Analysis
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Human IMAGE cDNA Clone Selection of 40,000
Sequence-Verified Clones
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Custom Glass Slide Array Preparation
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Bioinformatics Support:
Assistance
with Experimental Design
Data Analysis and
Functional Annotation
Equipment
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Affymetrix GeneChip
System
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OmniGrid Accent micro-array spotter
(Genomic Solutions)
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BioRobot 8000 (Qiagen)
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Primus multi-block system for high-throughput PCR (MWG)
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Confocal dual-laser scanner ScanArray Lite (Packard BioChip)
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ABI PRISMŽ 7900HT Sequence Detection System
Software
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GeneSpring (Silcon
Genetics)
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Spotfire DecisionSite
software (Spotfire, Inc)
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Pathway Assist (Ariadne Genomics)
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ScanArray and QuantArray
(Packard BioChip)
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MicroDB software and data mining tool (Affymetrix)
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Affymetrix Microarray
Suite (Affymetrix)
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More at : http://www.uic.edu/depts/rrc/cgf/index.html
*UIC
Core Protein Research Laboratory Capacities
Proteomics
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Ciphergen SELDI-TOF platform
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Novex, BioRad, and Pharmacia
1-D & 2-D Gel Electrophoresis Systems
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Bio-Rad Proteomeworks
Spot Cutter
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Bio-Rad FX Pro Plus Multi-Imager System
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ABI Voyager DE-Pro MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometer
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Hewlett-Packard (HP) 1100 liquid chromatograph using MSD ion trap XCT
with on-line nano LC and
nano electrospray ion source (Agilent
Technologies, Palo Alto, CA) optimized for a 75 μm column
format LC/MS/MS with Spectrum Mill software.
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Isotope-coded affinity tag (ICAT) method
*Bioinstrumentation
Laboratory This laboratory contains equipment for the design and construction
of electronic devices, and test equipment for troubleshooting electronic
problems.
*Biostatistics Facility This facility provides statistical support services.
*Electron Microscope Facility This facility provides seven transmission and
one scanning electron microscopes, ancillary equipment and technical support.
Related instruments include four microtomes, freeze
etching equipment, and a variety of laboratory instruments related to EM
processing. The facility includes eight microscope rooms, two darkrooms, two
preparation laboratories, one ultramicrotome room,
and two personnel laboratories.
*Environmental Stress Facility This facility of approximately 1200 square
feet contains three hypobaric chambers and two psychometric rooms in which
pressure, temperature, vapor pressure, air volume movement, and lighting can
be carefully controlled. Facilities are available for both human and animal
environmental stress experiments.
*Flow Cytometry Laboratory This facility maintains
a Coulter 741 flow cytometer and cell sorter
system, and trains users in the use of these instruments.
*Instrument Shop Facility This facility supplies design, construction and
repair services of mechanical equipment.
*Microcomputer Laboratory This facility provides in house microcomputer
support for scientific applications including data capture and transfer of
data to the mainframe.
*Scientific Computer Workstation This facility provides specialized computer
assistance for users acquiring their data from atomic absorption, mass and
nuclear resonance spectrometers; the flow cytometer;
and electron microscopes.
*Spectroscopy Facility This facility consists of three laboratories which
provide research services for atomic absorption spectroscopy, mass
spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
LIBRARY OF THE HEALTH SCIENCES
The Library of the Health Sciences serves as a major resource for UIC as well
as for the other campuses, i.e., Peoria, Rockford and Urbana Champaign, which comprise the University of Illinois complex. The Library also serves
as the Regional Medical Library for a ten state region under a National
Library of Medicine program. Its collection is comprehensive, and includes
materials in all of the subject fields of interest in the teaching, research,
and clinical programs of the units which it serves. Over 5,500 current
periodicals are subscribed to, and more than 450,000 bound periodical
volumes, books, government documents, and audio visual items are available.
The Library is a member of the Biomedical Communication Network, and uses the
computerized information retrieval systems of Bibliographic Retrieval
Services, Inc., the National Library of Medicine, Lockheed DIALOG Information
Systems, Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), System Development
Corporation and Occupational Health Services. The Library's access to these
systems makes available more than one hundred and fifty data bases in
virtually every conceivable subject area, including MEDLINE, TOXLINE,
CANCERLIT, HEALTHLINE, Excerpta Medica,
Psychological Abstracts, Biological Abstracts, ERIC, and Science Citation
Index.
REPRODUCTION/PRINTING FACILITY
The University maintains its own Reproduction Department which provides
extensive reproduction capabilities including the collating and spiral
binding of various documents such as proposals and reports. This resource is
routinely used by the UIC-TRL. |
