The Arkansas INBRE’s Science Research Core is comprised of services provided by three scientific research facilities. These core facilities provide investigators throughout the state with access to the instrumentation and expertise needed for three key areas of modern biotechnology. All three areas were chosen because the technical expertise and, especially, the instrumentation of each facility are not commonly available, even in an average, well-funded research laboratory. Yet, all three facilities represent areas of research at the molecular and cellular level in which rapid advances are occurring daily. With access to these technologies for specific studies and/or collection of data, researchers can pursue and extend their research projects in their own laboratories.

Each Biotechnology Core facility is committed to the education and training of both INBRE faculty and students (undergraduate and graduate) in the sophisticated technologies specific to each facility. The three facilities and their goals are:

• Genomics—Provide expertise and equipment to allow researchers to incorporate genotypic and gene expression analyses into existing studies and to design new studies using state-of-the-art genetic tools

• Proteomics— Provide expertise and equipment to enable researchers to study protein structure using state-of-the-art instrumentation

• Digital Microscopy— Provide expertise and equipment to allow researchers to locate macromolecules within cells and tissues, thereby better assessing their function in normal and diseased states