Centralized core facilities provide scientists with state-of-the-art tech

HSRB-II houses a host of integrated core facilities, putting state-of-the-art technologies at the fingertips of the scientists who are working in the building. The mission of Emory's Integrated Core Facilities enables collaborative discovery to drive impact and innovation across the basic, translational, & clinical sciences. The Core facilities offer cutting-edge technologies that collaboratively influence impactful research. By housing specialized and often costly equipment in a centralized location, Emory researchers have better access to vital equipment. This reduces the burden on individual labs and fosters a more collaborative environment. A few Emory Integrated Core Facilities are located in HSRB-II, including the Center for Systems Imaging, Flow Cytometry (including BSL3 equipment), Cellular Imaging, Gnotobiotic Animal, Mouse Transgenic & Gene Targeting, Rodent Behavioral, Genomics, and Metabolomics & Lipidomics Cores, as well as a new Biorepository Core. There are also resources, space, and operations for the Division of Animal Resources, and BSL-3 studies. For some cores, HSRB-II is one of multiple locations on campus while other cores will relocate to have a single location at HSRB-II. Three cores, called Innovation Cores, are new to the Emory system—3D Bioprinting, Micromachining, and Extended Reality. 3D bioprinting is similar to 3D printing, but instead of using resins, it uses cells as building blocks. Micromachining allows researchers to take advantage of microchip technologies to make small devices that allow biological experiments to be done on a much smaller scale, which is relevant in the human body. The Extended Reality Core, combines aspects of virtual reality and augmented reality. “A lot of the technologies in these innovation cores are available in engineering research labs,” said Wilbur Lam, W. Paul Bowers Research Chair in the Department of Pediatrics and professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. “We are doing what no medical school has ever done—making this technology available to our medical researchers as well as to our entire scientific community.”