Health Span Core

There are clear phenotypic changes that occur with aging, including shifts in energetics and metabolism, behavioral and functional deficits, and these phenotypic changes are accompanied by increased pathologic lesions and burden in tissues with advancing age. These effects can further be mediated by cell autonomous and cell non-autonomous mechanisms, which are interrogated via strategies, such as heterochronic parabiosis. To support demands for these services to the research community, the HSC was established as a critical resource within the E-NSC to perform integrative phenotyping of health and function across multiple domains in aging rodents by leveraging our long-standing expertise in conducting sophisticated in vivo metabolic studies, hormonal assays, and specialized surgeries, including parabiosis, as well as newly added services, including geropathology, behavior, and cardiovascular function. These studies are supported by an experienced and skilled team of staff scientists and technicians, and a distinguished group of expert consultants. The HSC also offers consultation, advice, and training to investigators interested in implementing these studies in their own lab, or to devise a customized study design for services in the Core. The HSC also makes an aging and parabiotic tissue repository available for dissemination to investigators upon request.

Personnel

Director: Derek M. Huffman, PhD

Operations Manager: Dr. Kai Mao and Mr. Hongqian Liang

Consultants:
Dr. Nir Barzilai (glucose metabolism)
Dr. Gary Schwartz (Whole-animal metabolic phenotyping)
Dr. Rajat Singh (Cell metabolism assays)
Dr. Maria Gulinello (Rodent behavior phenotyping)
Dr. Richard Kitsis (Cardiovascular phenotyping)
Dr. Amanda Beck (Geropathology)

Services

  1. Assays
    • In vivo clamp studies
    • Specialized surgeries (catheters, ICV cannulas, parabiosis)
    • Metabolic phenotyping
    • Behavioral and functional phenotyping
    • Geropathology
    • Hormonal assays
  2. Reagents and Samples
    • Aging and parabiotic tissue repository

Prices

BODY COMPOSITION AND DISSECTION
Type of Service Member Rate Non-Member Rate
qMR (rats or mice) $10 $30
Micro CT scan $50 $100
Complete dissection (weighing, fixation, freezing) $20 $35
SURGERIES
Type of Service Member Rate Non-Member Rate
Lipectomy $100 $150
Clamp surgery $100 $150
Inserting ICV or intra hypothalamic catheter $100 $150
Chronobiosis Surgery+Housing Y-Y, Y-O, or O-O each $200 $300
Chronobiosis Surgery+Housing (one set, i.e. Y-Y, Y-O, O-O) $500 $750
Chronobiosis limited tissue request (one set, i.e., Y-Y, Y-O, O-Y, O-O) $50 $100
Chronobiosis plasma/serum (one set, i.e., Y, Y-O, O-Y, O) ~50uL $100 $150
Chronobiosis complete tissue and plasma (one set, i.e., Y-Y, Y-O, O-Y, O-O) $600 $900
METABOLIC STUDIES
Type of Service Member Rate Non-Member Rate
Clamp assay: with radioisotope (mice) $200 $300
Clamp assay: with radioisotope/C14 (mice) $250 $350
Clamp assay: with radioisotope/C14 and ICV (mice) $300 $450
Clamp assay: with radioisotope (rats) $250 $400
Clamp assay: with radioisotope/C14 (rats) $300 $450
Clamp assay: with radioisotope/C14 and ICV (rats) $350 $500
Clamp data analysis $15 $25
Mouse Metabolic Cages (8 chambers per week) $75 $125
Rat Metabolic Cages (4 chambers per week) $100 $150
Hormonal assays (kit and reagent costs apply) inquire  
FUNCTIONAL ASSAYS
Type of Service Member Rate Non-Member Rate
FUNCTIONAL ASSAYS
Balance Beam $60/hr $90/hr
Gait $60/hr $90/hr
Forced Exercise Test $60/hr $90/hr
Grip Strength $60/hr $90/hr
Rotarod $60/hr $90/hr
Open Field $60/hr $90/hr
Object Recognition $70/hr $120/hr
Object Placement $70/hr $120/hr
Y Maze/Zero Maze $60/hr $90/hr
Frailty assessment $60/hr $90/hr
Echocardiogram $80/hr $140/hr
Unassisted Core Room Use $30/hr inquire
GEROPATHOLOGY
Type of Service Member Rate Non-Member Rate
Geropathology analysis and report (4 tissues) $51 $100
Tissue processing, embedding, sectioning and Geropathology (4 tissues) $62.50 $115
CONSULTATION
Type of Service Member Rate Non-Member Rate
Consultation on study design, methods, interpretation $75/hr $120/hr
Training in Core methodologies $60/hr $100/hr