Cores

Administrative Core

The administrative core provides financial, scientific, and technologic stewardship of the Cobre Center for Antimicrobial Resistance and Therapeutic Discovery (CARTD) at The Miriam Hospital. Deputy director Gerard J. Nau, MD, PhD, establish overall program goals that are monitored by various committees and program staff at National Institute of General and Medical Sciences. Our overall mission is to foster an environment that inspires individuals to pursue laboratory science in antibiotic resistance and treatments by providing technical and mentoring support through our core facilities.  We will pursue the following specific aims:

1. The core will maintain an organizational structure that ensures effective communication between the supervisory, scientific, administrative and service-oriented components of the COBRE.
2. The core will devise strategies to increase the use of CARTD cores to allow self-sustainability by the end of Phase III.
3. The core will provide a rigorous mentoring infrastructure to all CARTD principal/pilot investigators.
4. The core will manage a pilot grants program designed to support the most creditable research on antimicrobial resistance and drug development.

Deputy Director: Gerard J. Nau, MD, PhD
Kerry LaPlante, PharmD, FCCP, FIDSA
Jason T Machan, PhD

Animal Models Core

Studies of antibiotic-resistant pathogens and new therapies must ultimately be evaluated in mammalian models of infection.  These pre-clinical assessments are a fundamental step to determining whether new treatments might be translated to humans. Moreover, the complexities of the mammalian immune response can be queried in an animal model to gain insight into the basic pathobiology of infections and how the host affects the outcome of infections.

The animal models core of the CARTD will enable pre-clinical studies in mice to facilitate rapid, high-quality data acquisition. This core provides essential input to aid in experimental design that enhances the results.  The core will maintain a portfolio of techniques directly related to the experimental objectives of the research projects, as well as diversify the research projects and to recruit investigators from outside the CARTD.  The core’s design includes masking of treatment groups so that observers make unbiased assessments of the animals throughout the experiment.  The core is responsible for managing the new in vivo imaging system that was recently procured by Lifespan. This system enhances the robustness and reproducibility of the studies by following up with individual animals and reducing the overall number of animals that are required in any given experiment.  The animal models core’s functions are defined by the following specific aims:

1. To provide consultation and assistance in planning experimental design, strain selection, and outcomes analysis.
2. To conduct infection and treatment experiments in collaboration with investigators from the junior investigator and pilot project research programs, as well as outside researchers.
3. To supervise, schedule, maintain, and operate the PerkinElmer IVIS Lumina III in vivo imaging system.

PI: Gerard J. Nau, MD, PhD

Biorepository Core

The Biorepository Core for the CARTD is a source of well-characterized clinical isolates. Clinical isolates are microorganisms isolated from human specimens from which an infectious disease process is suspected. These microorganisms are essential for translational research projects focusing on antimicrobial drug resistance and therapeutic discovery.

The primary services of the biorepository core include:

1. Procurement, storage, tracking and release of clinical isolates
2. Confirmation of microorganism identification
3. Genotypic / phenotypic resistance profiling

PI: April M. Bobenchik, PhD, D(ABMM)

Learn more about COBRE Center for Antimicrobial Resistance and Therapeutic Discovery (CARTD)