What We Do

Our clinical research center located at UB South Campus (Foster hall) has a long history of recruitment of human subjects for clinical studies. We have current databases of volunteers who want to participate in research studies. We have trained and calibrated personnel that can help you:

• Conduct clinical studies, large and small, single and multi-centered
• Help investigators with IRB and regulatory procedures
• Collect and process human biological samples
• Arrange sample storage in the UB biorepository
• Arrange for metabolic testing of samples (e.g., fasting blood glucose, Hemoglobin A1c, CRP, lipid profile, etc.)
• Collect medical, dental and behavioral information from participants via clinical examinations and questionnaires
• Create and manage databases for handling and analysis of entry records and microbiome datasets

We have standard protocols for nucleic acid extraction and sequencing of microbiome communities. We work in close collaboration with the UB Genomics and Bioinformatics Core, a state-of-the-art facility. Our laboratory protocols and bioinformatics pipelines are designed to evaluate microbiome communities via:

• 16S rRNA gene sequencing: provides an overview of the taxonomical composition of bacterial communities based on information contained in the hypervariable regions of the 16S rRNA gene.
• Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequencing: commonly used to identify fungi present in microbial communities (the mycobiome).
• Shotgun metagenomic sequencing: provides the whole gene repertoire in a microbial community allowing a less biased overview of community taxonomical composition and inference of the functional potential.
• Metatranscriptomic sequencing: provides insight into gene expression by the whole community of microorganisms to evaluate functionality.
• Strain-level profiling: since strains of the same species are differentially associated with diseases, we are currently developing pipelines for strain-level analysis of microbial communities.