# Translational Genomics Core

> **NIH NIH P20** · LSU HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER · 2024 · $152,974

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The Translational Genomics Core (TGC) of the Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium (LCRC) was initially
created as a standard sequencing facility to support the basic research infrastructure of the School of Medicine.
With the support of Phases I and II of COBRE “Mentoring Translational Research in Louisiana”, the LSU School
of Medicine and the Louisiana Cancer Research Center (LCRC), the TGC has developed into a state-of-the-art
institutional facility capable of implementing a variety of next generation sequencing (NGS) protocols including
whole transcriptome, RNASeq, whole exome sequencing, and array-based methylation and SNP analysis,
single-cell sequencing and chromatin-immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq). The TGC has served
multiple projects through the establishment of service contracts and collaborations at the institutional, local and
international level. The TGC is now ideally positioned to support the Phase 2 COBRE “Center for Translational
Viral Oncology” (CTVO) application. As in the first phase of the CTVO, the Junior Principal Investigators (JPIs)
of the proposed projects will have a discounted pricing structure, comprehensive training, instrumentation
access, troubleshooting protocols, and data analysis assistance that is linked to multi-institutional informatics
pipelines, including the CTVO BBC. The TGC has been instrumental in the acquisition of two P20-SPORE grants:
1) P20CA202922 (PIs Miele and Meade), and a collaboration with Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL, in which
the TGC Director is a research project PI; 2) 5P20CA233374 (PIs Ochoa, Miele). These studies aim to determine
correlations between gene markers and obesity/ethnicity in triple negative breast cancer African American and
Caucasian patients in Louisiana. The TGC is constantly evolving and updating instrumentation and protocols to
ensure that JPIs in Phase 2 CVTO will have cutting-edge capacity to generate high quality data. Latest
acquisitions are 10X genomics single-cell and tissue localized sequencing. Dr. Zabaleta maintains a constant
collaboration with Dr. Chindo Hicks, Director of the Bioinformatics and Genomics Program in the Department of
Genetics, School of Medicine, LSUHSC-New Orleans and CTVO BBC Co-director as well as pipelines to Tulane
University Cancer and Viral Bioinformatics through Dr. Erik Flemington. Drs Zabaleta and Hicks coordinate the
sequencing (Dr. Zabaleta) and bioinformatics (Dr. Hicks) to provide the best information to the PIs requesting
next generation sequencing data from their nucleic acids samples. These research capacity developments
strengthen the propensity for Phase 2 CTVO research project and pilot study success and likelihood for NIH
funding.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10913993
- **Project number:** 5P20GM121288-08
- **Recipient organization:** LSU HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Jovanny Zabaleta
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $152,974
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-08-15 → 2027-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10913993

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10913993, Translational Genomics Core (5P20GM121288-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10913993. Licensed CC0.

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