Core Services
Administrative/Program Enrichment Core
The Administrative/Program Enrichment core provides centralized scientific leadership, administrative coordination, and financial oversight to ensure the success, sustainability, and integration of the UMN NSC. It fosters collaboration, training, and dissemination of information through national and local partnerships, symposia, pilot grants, and hands-on educational opportunities focused on genome integrity and its role in aging.
Research Development Core
The RDC supports the scientific development and training of investigators in the biology of aging by providing access to specialized UMN NSC cores focused on genome instability and its impact on aging hallmarks. It facilitates career development through pilot grants, research awards, mentoring, and hands-on training, leveraging the extensive infrastructure of MIBAM and the University of Minnesota.
DNA Damage & Epigenetic Changes Core
This core provides state-of-the-art tools to quantify and characterize DNA damage and epigenetic alterations—two interrelated hallmarks of aging—with high specificity and sensitivity, using advanced LC-MS and DNA adductomic techniques. By enabling detailed analysis of genotoxic stress and age-associated DNA methylation changes, this core supports mechanistic studies into how genome instability and epigenetic drift drive senescence and other aging phenotypes.
DNA Damage Signaling & Repair Core
This core provides unique, state-of-the-art platforms—CyTOF and a functional nucleotide excision repair (NER) assay—to quantify DNA damage response proteins and DNA repair capacity at the single-cell level. By enabling detailed and scalable analyses of genome maintenance mechanisms, this core supports researchers in uncovering how impaired DNA repair contributes to aging and facilitates the development of potential geroprotective strategies.
Models of Genome Instability Core
This core facilitates resource sharing with investigators by providing access to validated mouse models, human cell lines, mouse tissues, and primary cells either through direct transfer or collaborative experimentation at the Masonic Institute on the Biology of Aging and Metabolism (MIBAM).