It is equipped with five laminar flow hoods, four CO2 incubators, a Beckman scintillation counter, a PCR thermal cycler, refrigerated centrifuges, and an inverted microscope. There is access to a cold room and a warm room. Animals for this project will be housed in the Veterinary Services Center. An office of approximately 120 square feet is located in a separate building from the laboratory. There is an Apple Macintosh computer and printer in the office and there are three Apple computers and a printer in the laboratory.
Ultracentrifuges are available as shared equipment.
The equipment is provided at no direct costs to the sponsor. Dr. Fathman and his colleagues focus their research on developing and using new therapies for immune-based diseases. In his projects, his lab is working with the non-obese diabetic mouse, which develops diabetes in a process very similar to that in humans as well as an animal model of multiple sclerosis. His lab is trying to understand the genetic and immunologic events that trigger the immune system to start recognizing pancreatic b cells or the myelin sheath and to begin attacking them. His lab is working to develop strategies for preventing or treating these diseases.