New Proteomics Facility Opens at the Medical Sciences Campus
The RCMI Proteomics Discovery Core Facility was inaugurated on August 2, 2007 at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus. Loyda Meléndez, PhD, Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Medical Zoology of the School of Medicine serves as director of the facility.
From left: Juliana Pérez-Laspiur, RCMI Research Associate; José R. Carlo, MD, Chancellor,
and Loyda Melendéz PhD, Director, Proteomics Discovery Core Facility.
The RCMI Program at the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health provides 1.4 million dollars in grant funds to create and operate the facility until 2011. This unit will provide researchers with sophisticated tools and techniques to explore protein structure and function. Areas of potential application of these resources include biomarker identification in diseases such as neurological manifestations of HIV/AIDS, genetic blood disorders, dengue and cancer. Other areas of potential impact include identification of peptides that may lead to vaccine development.
Clockwise from top left: Douglas M. Sheely, PhD;Jesús Vázquez, PhD;
Catherine Costello, PhD, and Pawell Ciborowski, PhD.
A one-day symposium on Proteomics was held as part of the opening activities of the facility. Guest speakers included Jesús Vázquez, PhD, from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid; Catherine Costello, PhD. from Boston University School of Medicine, and Pawel Ciborowski, PhD, from the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Douglas M. Sheely, ScD, from the Division of Biomedical Technology at the at the National Center for Research Resources of, attended the inauguration and symposium on behalf of Barbara Alving, MD, Director of the National Center for Research Resources. University officials participating in these activities included Antonio García Padilla, JD, President of the University of Puerto Rico; Emma Fernández-Repollet, PhD, Vice-President for Research and Technology of the University of Puerto Rico and Director of the RCMI Program at the Medical Sciences Campus, and José R. Carlo, MD, Chancellor of the Medical Sciences Campus.
"From left: Emma Fernández-Repollet, PhD, Vice President for Research and Technology, UPR;
Antonio García-Padilla, JD, President, UPR, and Juliana Pérez-Laspiur, RCMI Research Associate."
The new facility is one of seven activities funded by the RCMI Program at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus until 2011. The 13.4 million dollar grant from RCMI is focused on improving biomedical research infrastructure at the campus.
