BioCoR Research Projects
The goal of BioCoR is to advance the science, technology and practice of biospecimen preservation. This requires establishing the fundamentals of biopreservation science. Below are excerpts from our ongoing research projects:
Research Project 1: Freezing-Induced Phase Separation and Spatial Microheterogeneity in Protein Solutions
Published on: Tuesday 22, December 2009BioCoR
Category: Research Project
Freezing of water induces solute rejection, creating regions of high solute concentration. Freezing-induced partitioning of the solution into different thermodynamic phases (an ice phase and a freeze-concentrated liquid phase) induces segregation of the protein, exposing it to different microenvironmental conditions within the same medium.
Research Project 2: Development of 3-D Raman Confocal Microspectroscopy Techniques to Detect Molecular Mechanisms and Sites of Damage in Mammalian Cells during Freeze/Thaw
Published on: Tuesday 22, December 2009BioCoR
Category: Research Project
The main goal of this study is to determine the correlation between the biophysical state of the intracellular medium during cryoprocessing and the thermal/osmotic damage to cells. Therefore, we are utilizing Confocal Raman Microspectroscopy to directly map the intracellular chemcial composition of single mammalian cells (as submicron states) during cryopreservation. Our initi
Research Project 3: Development of a Microfluidic Device for DMSO Removal
Published on: Tuesday 22, December 2009BioCoR
Category: Research Project
The vast majority of umbilical cord blood (UCB) units are cryopreserved using a 10% DMSO solution. Despite its clinical use, DMSO is not approved for systemic administration and the infusion of cryopreserved cells containing DMSO into humans has been associated with various adverse events. Current methods of removing of DMSO are time consuming, labor intensive and result in ce
Service Project 1: Preservation of cells in BAL
Published on: Wednesday 05, October 2011BioCoR
Category: Service Project
Lung disease is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. There is no marker to identify patients at risk for developing specific lung diseases including chronic lung rejection, interstitial pulmonary fibrosis and fibroproliferative disorder associated with acute lung injury. In addition, there are no consistently effective treatments for these lung diseases.
Service Project 2: Improving tissue preservation
Published on: Wednesday 05, October 2011BioCoR
Category: Service Project
Tissue biospecimens are typically frozen or formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) for use in diagnostic pathology. FFPE samples are retained for archival purposes and archival collections are an invaluable resource for biomedical research. In addition to use in diagnosis, FFPE sections are being used for extraction of nucleic acids (both DNA and RNA) and phosphoproteins due to growing interest in molecular-targeted cancer therapy. Frozen sections are also used for similar analysis.
