Biomarkers
Natalie Bruiners, PhD, Man. Core Director; Pratik Datta, PhD; Pankaj Mishra, PhD; Rahul Ukey, PhD
The mission of the NJ ACTS biomarker core is to promote and support non-oncological translational research by Rutgers investigators and their collaborators. Our team of experts in molecular and cellular biology and in immunology helps identify state-of-the-art approaches to tackle research questions in infectious and non-infectious diseases.
The core’s services span assistance in experimental design and project development, scientific collaboration and consultation. Supported by access to BSL2+ and BSL3 laboratories, the biomarker core is uniquely apt at supporting COVID-19 research.
Core Services
- Consultation, experiment planning, and service outsourcing
- Assistance with data generation for manuscript or grant preparation
- Set up projects as collaboration
- IgG, IgM and IgA antibody testing and titer determination
- Detection of IgG1, IgG2, IgG3 and IgG4
- Antibody effector functions
- Memory B cell and T cell immunophenotyping
- RNA flow cytometry
Consultation Requests
Ready to get more with Core?
Service Request Form
Please email request forms to Natalie Bruiners. We will be in contact to set up a virtual consultation to determine how the core can serve your scientific needs.
Additional Information:
Important: Because projects carried out in the facility involve pathogens, we require adherence to regulations or approvals by standard operating procedures (SOP), institutional review boards (IRB) and institutional biosafety committees (IBC) for all experiments. For additional questions regarding biosafety contact REHS: office phone (973) 972-8424.
Fee Structure
| Consultation | Antibody assays/T and B cell assays |
|---|---|
| Consultation | Free 1 hour |
| NJ ACTS member | $30 per hour |
| NJ ACTS non-member | $35 per hour |
| Academic | $40 per hour |
| Industry | $50 per hour |
Additional Partner Services
Immune Monitoring and Advanced Genomics Shared Resource at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
For immunophenotyping involving scRNAseq and gene expression analysis of individual immune cell populations
a)Sample processing and storage
b)10x single cell RNA sequencing
-Amplified, barcoded cDNA from single-cell suspensions
-Library construction
-Target enrichment
-T cell, B cell and ATAC sequencing
c)Luminex serum cytokine analysis
d)Data analyzed by Rutgers core staff
Read More >>
NJMS Flow Cytometry and Immunology Core Laboratory
For applications involving flow cytometric analysis, cell sorting and imaging flow cytometry
Read More >>
Core Supported Projects
| Project Title | Brief Description |
|---|---|
| miRNAs as biomarkers of asthma exacerbation | Investigate circulating microRNA as non-invasive biomarkers of asthma exacerbation |
| Clinical trial (VIDAS-TB, Biomerieux) | A whole-blood-based, fully automated platform for diagnosis of M. tuberculosis infection (multiple clinical trial phases) |
| Rutgers Corona Cohort (RCC) | Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 over time in a longitudinal cohort of Rutgers health care workers established at the pandemic onset |
| SARS-CoV-2-specific humoral and cellular immune responses | Detection of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies, neutralizing titer and virus-specific T and B cell responses in convalescent donors among Rutgers employees |
| Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Essex county, NJ | Venue-based approach to study seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 using a blood microsampling device |
| Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in volunteer firefighters | Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 among firefighters recruited for the NJ Firefighter Cancer Assessment and Prevention Study |
| Convalescent plasma therapy | To correlate the clinical outcome of convalescent plasma treatment of COVID-19 with the properties of the donor plasma |
| Severe SARS-CoV-2 induced illness in children | To identify abnormal immune phenotypes in children diagnosed with pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome or severe acute COVID-19 illness |
| SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in dental health care workers | To determine the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies in dental health care workers |
| SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in people with HIV | Detection of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody using mail in finger prick microsampling device |
| Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Hispanix/Latinx communities |
Investigate association between race/ethnicity and SARS-CoV-2 prevalence |
| Seroprevalence of SARS- CoV-2 in dental patients |
Detection of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies in dental patients recruited at Rutgers School of Dental Medicine’s dental clinics |
| Post COVID care program | Detection of SARS-CoV- 2 specific antibodies in patients recruited from Saint Barnabas Medical center and studying long-term effects of COVID-19 infection |
Publications
Please refer to our Nature protocol and list of published work:
https://experiments.springernature.com/articles/10.1038/nprot.2017.039
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.02127/full
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0144904
- Guerrini V., Panettieri R.A. Jr, Gennaro M.L. Lipid-laden macrophages as biomarkers of vaping-associated lung injury. Lancet Respir. Med. Feb;8(2):e6. doi: 10.1016/S2213-2600(19)30476-X. (2020)
- Radbel J., Jagpal S., Roy J., Brooks A., Tischfield J., Sheldon M., Bixby C., Witt D., Gennaro M.L., Horton D.B., Barrett E.S., Carson J.L., Panettieri R.A. Jr, Blaser M.J. Detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Is Comparable in Clinical Samples Preserved in Saline or Viral Transport Medium. J. Mol. Diagn. May 13; S1525-1578(20)30323-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jmoldx.2020.04.209 (2020)
- Barrett E.S., Horton D.B., Roy J., Gennaro M.L., Brooks A. , Tischfield J., Greenberg P., Andrews T., Jagpal S., Reilly N., Blaser M.J. , Carson J., Panettieri Jr. R.A. Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in previously undiagnosed health care workers at the onset of the U.S. COVID-19 epidemic. BMC Infect. Dis. (in press) (2020)
- Bruiners N., Dutta N.K., Guerrini V., Salamon H., Yamaguchi K.D., Karakousis P.C., Gennaro M.L. The anti-tubercular activity of simvastatin is mediated by cholesterol-dependent regulation of autophagy via the AMPK-mTORC1-TFEB axis. J. Lipid Res. 2020 (in press) Aug 26;jlr.RA120000895. doi: 10.1194/jlr.RA120000895.
- Barrett E.S., Horton D.B., Roy J., Xia W., Greenberg P., Andrews T., Gennaro M.L., Parmar V., Russell W.D., Reilly N., Uprety P., Gantner J.J., Trooskin S.Z., Blaser M.J. , Carson J., Panettieri Jr. R.A. (2020) Risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospital workers: results from a screening study in New Jersey, U.S. in Spring 2020. Open Forum Infect Dis (in press) (2020)
Leadership Team
Maria Laura Gennaro, M.D. M.Sc.
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
Public Health Research Institute
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
