# Bioenergetics Core

> **NIH NIH P20** · MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA · 2020 · $153,176

## Abstract

CORE C: Bioenergetics Profiling Core
 Director: Craig Cano Beeson, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences
Project Summary
The primary goal of the Bioenergetics Profiling core facility is to support COBRE investigators in the
characterization of metabolite fluxes related to cellular redox and primary energy metabolism – the prevalent
sources of both the primary and secondary cellular redox species. The facility provides access to traditional,
`gold standard' techniques such as isotopomer, radiometric, and spectroscopic analyses. The core is also a
development site for the Seahorse Biosciences extracellular flux (XF) fluorometric technology used to measure
metabolic fluxes (i.e., oxygen consumption, CO2 and lactate extrusion) in real time using multiwell plates. The
basic Seahorse XF applications enable high throughput metabolic measurements with small sample sizes that
have transformed the utility of quantitative analyses of metabolic fluxes. Innovative adaptations of the XF
technologies developed in the core facility are providing access to real time flux measurements of redox
species in cells and tissues and, more importantly, the interrogation of bioenergetics pathways via use of
pharmacological or genetic interventions. We have coordinated these recent strategic technological
acquisitions into a core that provides analytical support for the efforts of the COBRE investigators and their
collaborators while also extending the technology to suit new efforts and further enable measurements with
improved translational potential. In the COBRE Phase I stage the core was known as the “Metabolomics Core”
that offered nascent Seahorse XF technology in addition to traditional single time-point quantification of
metabolite concentrations via LC-MS or NMR techniques. As described below, these traditional metabolomics
techniques were not as useful to the lead COBRE investigators as were the XF technologies, particularly as
the latter technology advanced and traditional metabolomics has matured. Because traditional metabolomics
analyses are now commercially available leading to cost reductions (much as academic DNA oligomer or
peptide cores became obsolete), the metabolomics core has been renamed as the “Bioenergetics Profiling
Core” to reflect the XF services we have developed that best support our investigators, and for which there are
no alternative external resources. Indeed, because XF technologies utilize living samples, it is unlikely they will
be easily `out-sourced'.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10005395
- **Project number:** 5P20GM103542-10
- **Recipient organization:** MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
- **Principal Investigator:** Craig Cano Beeson
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $153,176
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2011-09-01 → 2022-01-15

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10005395

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10005395, Bioenergetics Core (5P20GM103542-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10005395. Licensed CC0.

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