Facilities
Labs and Clinics:
The research component of the Breast Center occupies 17,800 sq ft of space
on two floors in the new state-of-the art Alkek research building at the
Baylor College of Medicine. Laboratory space is of open design to foster
interactions, and offices, computer user rooms, conference rooms, and common
equipment rooms are separate from the work bench. Our dedicated
multidisciplinary breast cancer clinic, where clinical research as well
as routine patient care, imaging, diagnosis, and treatment take place,
is located in the Smith Tower Outpatient Building in the Methodist Hospital
across the street. In addition, the center has administrative, Biostatistics
and
Information
Technology
offices
located
in the adjacent Cullen Building.
Laboratory space is assigned to each individual Principal Investigator and is of open design to foster interactions among laboratory personnel. Space on each floor includes faculty offices, common equipment areas, computer facilities, temperature controlled rooms, darkrooms, and multiple tissue culture rooms.
In addition to equipment available in each individual laboratory, common use equipment includes autoclaves, low-speed and ultra-centrifuges, gel dryers, microplate readers, gel documentation systems, scintillation counter.
Core Facilities Dedicated to the Breast Center:
We have a highly regarded Tumor Bank, which collects and documents human
tumor samples that are available for both clinical and basic research.
Tissue samples from human patients and from transgenic animals are examined
by
the Pathology
Core. We have a dedicated Microarray Core (Affymetrix) that provides service
for hybridization, scanning, and data analyses for use in microarray expression
analysis.
The Bioinformatics Core provides general computing support and assistance with clinical study design, experimental design, statistical data analysis, and database construction and maintenance. The Q-PCR Core provides quantitative PCR support. For microscopy needs, we have an Imaging Core, with a laser confocal microscope, and both an inverted and upright microscopes including epifluorescence microscopy.
Additional Core facilities at Baylor College of Medicine:
Baylor College of Medicine has numerous imaging core facilities for electronic,
confocal, and deconvolution microscopy and is one of the 3 institutions
directly involved in the Genome Sequencing Project. Baylor core facilities
also provide cytogenetics, animal cell vector design and delivery, transgenic
animal supports and general animal housing, high resolution mass spectroscopy,
vendor freezer programs for reagents, and artwork and
publication support, to name a few.
Pathology: Provides clinical support and fee-for-service support to Breast Center faculty and affiliated investigators. Capabilities include standard histological staining procedures, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence assay development, in situ hybridization, apoptosis assays, preparation of tissue arrays, laser capture microdissection, microscopy, and pathological evaluation of clinical samples.
Biostatistics, Informatics, and Data Management Section: This section is responsible for all computing, networking, programming needs of the center and also provides biostatistics, analysis, and data management support to the entire breast center. These services include assistance with clinical study design, experimental design, statistical data analysis, database construction and maintenance, programming support, IT support.
Q-PCR: The center maintains an Applied Biosystems 7700 Quantitative PCR machine available to trained personnel as needed.
Microscopy and Imaging: Capabilities include laser confocal microscopy, epifluorescence and brightfield microscopy, fluorescence stereomicroscopy. All microscopes are equipped with digital cameras and dedicated computer workstations for image acquisition and analysis.