Functional Genomics Core

A. SPECIFIC AIMS

The aims of this Core remain to provide support for discovery of the changes in 1) gene expression and translation and 2) protein composition and turnover that underlie the biology of aging. It will also 3) provide the informatics support necessary to successfully interpret this data.

B. STRATEGY

Significance. This Core assists Center investigators in the application of Functional Genomics technologies to studies of the biology of aging, providing information at a scale and detail that would not otherwise be possible. It is particularly well suited to a theme of elucidating the importance of protein translation, synthesis and degradation to the biology of aging.

Approach

The Core supports transcriptomics, proteomics and informatics technologies. Center use of expression arrays began 9 years ago; since then array densities have increased, but most importantly, informatics and statistical methods for their analysis are still improving and evolving. Recently, RNA-Seq technology has evolved to become feasible for expression analysis, supplementing or replacing microarrays. Proteomics was added to this Core 4 years ago, and during this time mass spectroscopy (MS) analytical methods have also rapidly evolved. The needs of Center investigators have frequently required improvements in software analysis capabilities; this is well illustrated below by recent progress in MS analysis of protein synthesis turnover using heavy labeling. Approaches for transcriptomics, proteomics and informatics are each described.