Nutrient Assessment Facility Core
Objectives
The Nutrient Assessment Facility Core plays a role in improving exchanges between nutrition scientists and environmental health researchers whose work focuses on population-based epidemiology. Environmental health researchers are rarely familiar with the intricacies of nutrition studies and are not fully cognizant of the potential biomarkers that derive from basic nutrition research. The Nutrient Assessment Facility Core adapts and translates expertise in nutrient biomarker analysis and diet assessment for inclusion in environmental population-based studies. As one of eight national NIDDK-funded Clinical Nutrition Research Units, this core adds environmental research-specific components to this existing facility, thereby creating enhanced services for environmental researchers at modest cost. The Core supports core services that assist investigators with nutritional biochemistry, epidemiology, communication and dietary intervention.
Some of the areas for which the Core provides consultation are biomarkers of nutritional status, develops appropriate methodology, assists with design of diet assessment survey instruments, and helps analyze dietary assessment data. This Core also consults with investigators on food as a vector for exposure and on physiologic parameters, such as role of fat mobilization (during dieting) on release of organochlorine compounds into the blood.
The objectives of the Nutrient Assessment Facility Core are to:
- Enhance the capacity of UNC investigators to conduct research on human nutrition as a modulator of response to environmental agents;
- Provide expertise, facilities and measurement capabilities;
- Increase opportunities and incentives for collaboration in research between nutrition, toxicology, translational, and population-based arms of environmental health research, and
- Attain cost efficiencies that will facilitate this research.
Core Director, Members and Affiliates
Facilities and Services
The Nutrient Assessment Facility Core provides a variety of services including the following:
- Molecular Biology and Biochemical Assays
- Body Composition and Energy Balance Service
- Communication and Intervention Services
Molecular Biology and Biochemical Assays
The Core facility is located in approximately 1,000 square feet of space in the McGavran-Greenberg Building at the School of Public Health. In addition, the Core facility has recently added 900 square feet of laboratory space in the Michael Hooker Research Center building. This site is used for experiments in molecular biology and for the majority of the biochemical assays. The following list of equipment is available: digital camera, BioRad iCycler qRT-PCR system, water baths, plate washer, plate reader, spectrophotometer, microcentrifuges, cell harvestor, -80° C freezers, gel electrophoresis, chemistry analyzer, Finnegan LCQ-MS-MS, Nucleofector. In addition, the Core maintains manuals and protocols for all procedures used. The following common equipment is also available for CEHS and CNRU investigators: Gel electrophoresis (mini gels and sequencing gels), thermocycler, thermocycler adapted for slides, fully equipped dark room, gel dryer, cryostat (for preparation of frozen sections) and microtome (for preparation of paraffin embedded samples), ultracentrifuge, scintillation counter, gamma counter, FPLC, and HPLC.
Body Composition and Energy Balance Service
The Body Composition and Energy Balance Service is located in the General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) and McGavran-Greenberg Hall for human studies. Animal facilities are located in McGavran-Greenberg. The GCRC uses a Hologic Discovery Dual x-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) to measure bone density and body composition; RJL bioelectrical impedance analysis to measure body composition and total body water; MedGraphics Indirect Calorimeter CCM/D to measure energy expenditure; portable MedGraphics VO2000; MTI Actigraph activity monitors; and XCT 2000 peripheral QCT scanner. The Nutrition Epidemiology office also conducts human studies and is located on the 4th floor McGavran-Greenberg. Their equipment includes: IBM laptop computers; digital cassette recorders and headphones for telephone recording; Kodak digital camera and tripod; NDS-R, PC SIDE, SAS, and STATA software; Tanita Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzer and Actisoft Analysis Software version 3.2.2; Actiprocess; and Actigraph monitors. Dietary assessment computer facilities provide digital cameras, audio recording, computer diet assessment and food composition software, a color printer, scanner, and storage devices. Animal studies are conducted using the following equipment: GE Lunar PIXImus small animal bone densitometer, Oxymax small animal indirect calorimeter, mouse MRI machine, and voluntary running wheels.
Communication and Intervention Services
Communication and Intervention services offered through the Nutrition Assessment Facility Core provide an extensive list of software programs and equipment to investigators, including the following software: Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, Adobe After Effects 6.5, Adobe Audition 1.5, Adobe Encore DVD 1.5, Adobe Acrobat 6.0 professional, Macromedia MX Studio 2004, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Office 2003 Professional, Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe GoLive CS, Adobe Image Ready CS, Adobe InDesign CS, Adobe Photoshop CS, Microsoft Windows XP Pro 2002, Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Adobe Flash, Apache, Tomcat, AW Stats, Remote Desktop, WinScp, putty, Open Office, pgAdminII, Flash Decompiler, Eclipse / MyEclipse, Paros, Java, Red Hat 9, and Red Hat Fedora 3. Hardware and other equipment include: Dell Inspiron 5160, Dell Power Edge 1750 Server, Dell Power Edge 2650 Server, Palm Zire 31, HP LaserJet 4050 Printer, Mitsubishi touch screen monitor, two digital cameras and tripod, and focus group equipment, such as a digital transcription machine and digital audio recorders.
Benefits to the Center
The interaction of the Nutrient Assessment Facility Core with the Center Research Cores has been related to:
- Assistance with experimental design relative to diet assessment;
- Assistance with biomarker selection with special emphasis on biomarkers of nutritional status (also the Nutrient Assessment Facility Core works with the Biomarker Facility Core to identify biomarkers for assessing nutrient-gene-environmental agent exposure interactions);
- Development of methods for such biomarker analyses, and assistance in generating pilot data;
- Assistance with diet assessment, making available consultation on diet survey design and analysis including computer-based tools that permit accurate reporting of food portion size;
- Maintenance of computer assisted diet composition analysis, training investigators in the use of these databases.
