Neuroscience Integration & Support Core

The primary objective of the Neuroscience Core is to advance MR/DD-relevant neuroscience within the University of Massachusetts Medical School Center of Excellence.

The Core has two principal components:  Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience (CMN) and Neuroscience Research Information and Coordination (NRICC).

Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience (CMN) provides focused Core services to research at multiple levels of analysis.  It consists of four subcomponents, each directed by an individual with demonstrated expertise in one or more relevant specialty areas:

• Gene Chip Analysis , which provides expertise in the application of Affymetrics chips to identify changes in transcript expression.
  
• Mass Spectrometry  which provides a highly flexible methodology for a variety of neuroscience applications, such as identifying sequences in complex mixtures of proteins and characterizing the multiple forms of protein post-translational modifications.
  
• Laser Capture Microscopy  which enables dissection of small regions of tissue.  This ability permits use of gene chip and MS technologies to determine the spatial and temporal characteristics of the intricate patterning of transcripts and proteins in the developing brain.
  
• Molecular Pathology, which provides a range of immunohistochemical and in-situ hybridization techniques to identify the distribution and patterning of gene and proteins that are critical for nervous system development and function.

In addition, other UMMS Core facilities are available to UMMS researchers and can be viewed by clicking here: UMMS Core Facilities

CMN Staffing

Peter McCaffery - Core Coordinator
Peter.McCaffery@umassmed.edu

Allan Jacobson - Gene Chip Analysis
Allan.Jacobson@umassmed.edu

James Evans- Mass Spectrometry
James.Evans@umassmed.edu

Edward Ginns- Laser Capture Microscopy
Edward.Ginns@umassmed.edu

James Crandall – Molecular Pathology
James.Crandall@umassmed.edu

Neuroscience Research Information and Coordination (NRICC) is a planning, information, and coordination service. It was constituted in recognition of the fact that MRDDRC core resources are only a subset of those that could now or may become available to advance MR/DD-relevant neuroscience research within the UMMS Center of Excellence. Other existing university resources also have the potential to enhance and/or to advance neuroscience research. On an ongoing basis, new scientific problems come into focus, new collaborative opportunities arise, and new technologies come on line. This core component answers the question of how such problems, opportunities, and technologies can be identified and systematically incorporated within MRDDRC operations.

NRICC Staffing

Edward Ginns (Chair)
Edward.Ginns@umassmed.edu

Curtis K. Deutsch
Curtis.Deutsch@umassmed.edu

Charles D. Hamad
Charles.Hamad@umassmed.edu

William J. McIlvane
William.McIlvane@umassmed.edu

Steven Treistman
Steven.Treistman@umassmed.edu