Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, has opened a new $15 million technology center. The university says the new center is designed to help researchers advance their study of several diseases.
The center, which will be known as the Mass Spectrometry Technology Access Center (MTAC), includes advanced technology equipment that can be used to develop and analyze biomarkers related to diseases such as diabetes, breast cancer, pediatric malnutrition and Crohn’s disease.
“We are trying to be one of the best mass spectrometry centers in the nation,” said Young Ah Goo, Director of MTAC.
Jeffrey Milbrandt, Head of Washington University School of Medicine’s Department of Genetics, said the MTAC will provide researchers with the ability to access technology that helps advance research focused on personalized medicine.
“Our ultimate goal is to improve treatments for disease,” Milbrandt said. “By being able to visualize things at a single cell level, to visualize metabolizing proteins on a slide and to see that the tumor cell is acting differently than the normal cells, and being able to see that at an individual tumor-by-tumor, even cell-by-cell basis, is going to help tremendously in helping develop treatments and monitoring the response to treatments.”
Ben Major, Faculty Director of MTAC, said the new center will serve as a resource for Washington University researchers and can also be a key asset to help recruit graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to St. Louis, Missouri.
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