Through the Seed Funding Program for Faculty, OSU’s Technology Business Assessment Group  (TBAG) funds faculty research projects with the potential for commercial success.  The group identifies these projects from proposals submitted in response to solicitations issued each fall and spring.  Program Director Steve Price says: “The program continues to grow as faculty look for that hard-to-find funding to take their research to higher levels of product development.” 

    The group identifies research projects that have the potential for commercial application when fully developed, and then helps move those projects forward by funding early stages of development.  Hopefully, these initial steps lead to a startup company or a joint venture with an interested company.  TBAG was formed in 2005 to further engage research faculty pursuing new technology development opportunities.

    TBAG Board of Advisors includes private sector partners experienced in new product identification and new technology evaluation, early-stage capital investors, representatives from i2E, the OSU Center for Innovation and Economic Development, the OSU-Okmulgee Economic Development and Training Center, the OSU VP for Research and Technology Transfer and the OSU Assistant VP for Technology Development.

 Representatives from Millipore, Edge Biosystems, Perkin Elmer, Cremer BD Falcon, Clontech, Rainin, Corning, Epicentre Biotech, Amaxa Biosystems, IDT, and others will gather in the morning of June 27, on the northern 3rd-floor atrium of the Noble Research Center to provide free consultations and to present their latest products.   Their expertise, and the lure of a free lunch, makes this event "a must."

    OSU's Microarray Core Facility (OMCF) continues to offer state-of-the-art instrumentation for creating microarrays, performing hybridizations, and analyzing the results of microarray experiments. The Nanodrop-II non-contact nanoliter dispensing instrument (Innovadyne Technologies, Inc.) can facilitate protein microcrystallography, or generate small protein arrays within individual wells of 96-well plates. The Seiko and Cartesian robotic systems have been in demand recently for custom printing macro-arrays. Don’t forget OMCF's two ND-1000 one-microliter spectrophometers, and the complementary ND-3300 fluorospectro-photometer for full-spectrum excitation and full-spectrum emission analyses of fluorescent samples, using only one microliter of sample. The recent acquisition of a suite of cell & tissue disruption equipment will assist RNA isolation from virtually any cell or sample, while providing consistency to RNA and protein preps. Of these instruments, the high-throughput bead-milling instrument is the clear favorite, capable of processing up to 192 samples simultaneously.

    In addition to hardware, the OMCF also continues to provide the latest software for data acquisition and analysis, including the recent purchase of two-seat licenses for GenePix v6. The older v4 of GenePix is still available and fully functional, but v6 is faster and more stable.  Though recent demand is quite high, the OMCF continues to provide unlimited computer time to OSU researchers for  microarray and macroarray image analysis and data processing.  

    Additionally, the OMCF has upgraded  the online program GPAP to v3.2.  Developed at OSU, GPAP provides robust pre-processing and statistical analysis of raw microarray data, generates diagnostic plots of data quality, and monitor the effects of processing and normalization.  GPAP v3.2 offers extended import features and other new options.

    On the “development” side of Facility operations, the OMCF is converting one of its inkjet dispensing instruments to use piezo-dispensers.  This will allow dispensing in the picoliter range. As an example application, this will allow accurate dispensing of 50 picoliters of a valuable biomolecule onto fragile micromachined silicon sensor arrays, or a similar nano-device. Non-contact nano- and pico-liter dispensing is also excellent for filling wells to supply your microchannel lab-chips or simply creating a high-density array of DNA or protein on your fragile matrix, nanoparticle coating, or semisolid substrate.

    As a major milestone, OMCF's  website portal is registering over one-million hits per year! This confirms the global utility and excellence of OMCF resources, and testifies to OSU's competitiveness in this arena.  At OSU, OMCF-supported projects include studies in Aspergillus, Bermuda grass, Campylobacter, cotton, cows, humans, mice, pigs, rats, sorghum, Synechocystis, ticks, tomatoes, various bacteria, viruses and wheat.

    However, the local OSU community is reminded of the importance of acknowledging and supporting  this essential resource.  With the pending expiry of an EPSCoR subsidy, it will be important for OSU investigators to find new avenues to support this valued resource.  To learn how you can ensure  continued  access to resources for  service, training, experimental design, labeling, hybridization, data analysis, consultation and support for proposal development, contact Dr. Peter Hoyt < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it >. You can also follow OMCF developments at http://biochem4.okstate.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=143&Itemid=117

    A great resource is available to researchers at OSU through the Single-Crystal X-ray Diffraction Facility located in the Department of Chemistry.  This facility is equipped with two single-crystal X-ray diffraction units from Bruker AXS.  Both instruments in the facility are equipped with computers to store data files and are loaded with programs for data reduction and data preparation.  The units are also equipped with DVD/CD read/write drives for data archiving.

    The SMART APEX II instrument is a small-molecule (usually less than 1000 atoms) machine with a molybdenum source and a D8 3-axis goniometer.  A KRYO-FLEX low temperature device is available with the instrument for data collection at low temperatures.  This instrument is great for examining drug compounds. 

    The MICROSTAR/X8 PROTEUM system is specifically designed for protein crystallography.  It is equipped with a copper rotating anode, Montel multilayer optics to assure monochromatic X-rays, and a Kappa 4-axis goniometer to maximize data collection options.  An Oxford Cryostream COBRA low temperature self-generating nitrogen device is attached to allow for data collection on cryo-preserved protein crystals.