# Core B - Virogenomics & Biostatistics Core

> **NIH NIH P01** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2020 · $246,815

## Abstract

Core B 
Project Summary/Abstract 
CORE B adheres to good clinical laboratory practices (GCLP) and operates under BSL-2+ containment. 
Hence, CORE B is able to work with infectious agents and infectious samples, including HIV positive samples 
and those that require worker immunization and/or federal clearance. Any clinical material used in projects 2, 
3, 4, 5 will be processed in CORE B as well as tissue from EBV-infected humanized mice for Project 2. 
 CORE B supports all projects of this program by providing NextGen sequencing, informatics and statistical 
services. (1) Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is the standard for clinical quantitation of infectious 
agents such as HIV and herpesviruse. It is the method of choice to confirm microarray data or data obtained 
from RNAseq experiments. We developed real-time QPCR arrays for all human herpesviruses, for targeted 
profiling of cell signaling pathways such as NFκB target genes and for human microRNAs. These will be used 
in projects 2, 3, 4, and 5. (2) To facilitate NextGen sequencing the core use the Agilent Bioanalyzer for QC of 
input RNA and post qPCR analysis, and Tecan general pipetting robot for making libraries of any chemistry 
(Illumina, PacBio, 454, IonTorrent). CORE-B also operates a 454/GsJunior NextGen sequencer with 800bp 
read-length and a PGM/IonTorrent machine with 400bp read-length. The longer read-length capability has 
proven essential for sequencing across viral repeat regions in BAC mutants (projects 2, 3, 4, and 5) and HLA 
haplotyping (project 3). (2) Bioinformatics. CORE B supports a full time programmer. It maintains 100 TB of 
storage (~10,000 human genomes) and dedicated Linux (128GB RAM) and OsX (64GB RAM) servers, each 
with open source and commercial software to support DNAseq, RNAseq and MS/MS protein analyses. 
Furthermore, it serves as the conduit to access the wider UNC computing infrastructure and if need be 
Amazon EC cloud. (3) Biostatisticis. The core support a full time statistician (MS level and above) and Dr. 
Steven Marron, the Amos Hawley Distinguished Professor in Statistics, as a Co-Investigator, who will provide 
in depth statistical advice on experimental design and analysis as it pertains to cell culture, mouse and studies 
on patient material, such as proposed in projects 3, 4, and 5. We decided on using R as the analyses program 
of choice, but have also access to SAS (via a UNC site-license) and Phyton programming environments.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9986669
- **Project number:** 5P01CA019014-41
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Dirk P Dittmer
- **Activity code:** P01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $246,815
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9986669

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9986669, Core B - Virogenomics & Biostatistics Core (5P01CA019014-41). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9986669. Licensed CC0.

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