Utilize Core Facilities

The core instruments are designed to detect and quantify binding of drugs to their biological targets as well as interactions between biomolecules. Each machine is equipped with a 96-384 plate reader or autosampler for rapid and automated library screening.

The Center for Research and Evaluation (CRE) at the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University (UMU) serves as the biostatistics and epidemiology core for the UMU clinical and translational research enterprise.

The Clinical Research Unit is a specialized unit dedicated to conducting outpatient clinical research funded by the government, industry or foundations.

SUNY SPORE is part of the Department of Pathology at SUNY Upstate Medical University. A core facility provides efficient, high-quality histology and digital pathology lab services for fee-for-service to the Upstate research community, external researchers and private sector companies (pharma/biotech).

In addition to core lab services, SUNY SPORE is open for research collaborations with academic organizations and academia/industry partnerships. Our goal is to create a dynamic research environment for interdisciplinary researchers, clinicians, and pathologists, impacting patients' quality of life by supporting research projects and delivering high-quality research services.   

This core is a joint enterprise between Upstate Medical University and Leica. It houses, in multiple locations, advanced instrumentation for the latest methods in light microscopy. The relationship with Leica as a designated Leica Center of Excellence, gives Upstate faculty and students access to new technologies, advanced training sessions in the latest methods in light microscopy and demonstrations of technology in development.

SUNYMAC is a Core Facility that provides both fee-for-service sample preparation and analysis and free access to several pieces of common use equipment.

The Core specializes in genome-wide or targeted high-throughput gene expression, genotyping, and copy number mapping, as well as ChIP-seq, methylation-seq, and single cell sequencing analysis. Our primary technology is Illumina next-generation sequencing (NGS). SUNYMAC also maintains instrumentation for sample enrichment (laser microdissection), nucleic acid Q/C analysis (Agilent Bioanalyzer), as well as NGS library construction (Covaris ultrasonicator), and target validation (BioRad real-time qPCR system, and BioPlex/Luminex system).

This core permits comprehensive imaging and functional evaluation of the musculoskeletal system.

The Upstate Proteomics & Mass Spectrometry Core Facility offers Upstate (and external) researchers cutting edge technology to support research projects involving proteomics or metabolomics applications.

The facility is equipped with a state-of-the-art Thermo LTQ Orbitrap mass spectrometer for superior sensitivity and resolution that allows the identification and quantification of complex mixtures of proteins or metabolites.

The Vector Biocontainment Lab (VBL), built with the SUNY 2020 grant fund in support of comprehensive research programs on viruses and bacteria that require high levels of biocontainment (Biosafety level-3 laboratory).

The VBL will facilitate research on infectious diseases that are classified as a major public health threat, such as COVID-19, Lyme disease, West Nile encephalitis, zika virus disease, chikungunya virus disease, dengue fever, malaria, Powassan encephalitis and other emerging infectious diseases at different biocontainment levels (BSL-2, ABSL-2, ACL-2, BSL-3, ACL-3 and ABSL-3).

Upstate and other SUNY infectious disease programs will utilize this one-of-its-kind biocontainment facility within the SUNY system to translate basic research ideas into products that help fight emerging infectious diseases of global health concern.

Upstate Cord Blood Bank is the only public cord bank in upstate New York State. We are also among the 25 cord banks in the U.S that accept cord blood donations.  You can find our state-of-the-art facility located on the same campus as Upstate Community Hospital.

We conduct various testing and determine if the donated cord blood unit is appropriate for processing, cryopreservation, storage, and distribution.  We also send cord blood units to medical researchers with the consent of the donor to be used in clinical trials.  Future expansion will include collections from other CNY hospitals and an option for Family Banking.

The Department of Biochemistry houses a state-of-the-art cryo transmission electron microscope (JEOL JEM-2100) equipped with cryo stage and digital imaging capabilities for observation of specimen at room and liquid nitrogen temperatures. The cryo TEM is suitable for observation of frozen hydrated specimen such as single protein molecules or two-dimensional crystals of membrane proteins. TVIPS EMMENU software allows automatic data collection for single molecule image analysis and cryo electron tomography.

The xray diffraction facility, located in 4247 Weiskotten Hall, can be used for crystal screening or diffraction data collection; for macromolecular or small-molecule crystallography. It consists of a high brilliance Oxford Excalibur PX Ultra diffraction instrument with a low-maintenance xray tube, a large Onyx CCD detector (165mm active area) and an Oxford cryo-stream for cryogenic data collection. A 4-circle kappa goniometer allows easy crystal mounting and alignment and permits data collection around any rotation axis. Two stereomicroscopes are available for crystal mounting. Data collection is controlled using the CrysAlis Pro software. The data can be reduced using proprietary routines in the same software, or the diffraction images can be exported in a format compatible with popular data reduction programs such as MOSFLM.

The SUNY Upstate Medical University Research Flow Core is available to all researchers at SUNY and surrounding institutions. We offer four flow cytometers and training for all researchers in the fundamentals of flow cytometry. A full-time flow core operator is available for assistance and guidance during normal business hours. The flow core operator is responsible the maintenance and calibration of the instruments.

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology runs a Virtek/BioRad Robotic colony arrayer for whole-genome genetic and drug-sensitivity screening against the entire set of Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene deletion strains. Arrayed sets of all heterozygous diploid and viable haploid deletion strains are available for analysis and can be tailored to 384- and 1536-colony per plate screening. An SP-Imager photo-documentation system with dedicated colony analysis software is available for quantification of robot-generated data. We also maintain a TECAN Infinite F200 shaking incubator/microplate reader for high-throughput analysis of yeast growth rates; this instrument also has various filter sets available for fluorophore analysis.

The Research Technology Core, part of the IMT Customer Support team, assists researchers with technology and research data administration needs, including hardware troubleshooting, repair, and replacement; software troubleshooting and installation; REDCap administration, training and support; and research data planning and sharing. We are available on campus and virtually over Teams.

Research Technology Core Website