Project Title: Nebraska Center for Heart and Vascular Research Project Summary: Bioassay Core The Bioassay Core will collaborate with and support the project leaders and other investigators within the Center for Heart and Vascular Research (CHVR) and University of Nebraska institutions in the analysis of proteins. The Core will utilize established infrastructure, analytical equipment and bioinformatic pipelines. The new Bioassay Core will be immediately operational to accept projects from the Project Leaders and other investigators. The objective for the requested support for the Bioassay Core is to afford full service to the Research Project Leaders and other CHVR investigators, introduce and expand the analytical capabilities using available instrumentation and computing resources, and develop new resources to assist CHVR investigators and investigators across the University of Nebraska system and region. The Bioassay Core will respond to and address the specific needs of the project aims described by each Project Leader in the grant proposal. State-of-the-art equipment and protocols are in hand, and the Core will continue to anticipate, develop, adapt, and implement new technologies, and obtain and/or upgrade necessary instrumentation and software in anticipation of future needs of CHVR investigators. The Core will be led by Dr. Hackfort, who has a wealth of expertise in the analysis of proteins and in leading successful and sustainable research cores. The major goals of the Bioassay Core are: • to assist the Project Leaders with the experimental design and sample preparation required for the experiments described in the grant proposal. • to process samples and acquire data using Bioassay Core technologies. • to analyze data acquired in the Bioassay Core and assist with the interpretation of the results using the bioinformatic pipelines available in the Bioassay Core. • to educate the investigators and their trainees on best practices regarding the Bioassay Core technologies.