MCCB Faculty-led Research Core Facilities 

Our faculty contribute to research at UMass Chan by leading core facilities that provide shared resources and services to the UMass Chan community.

 Drosophila Resource Facility 

Director: Andreas Bergmann, PhD
The Drosophila Resource Facility provides labs with the media necessary for Drosophila research (Low Yeast Brown Food, High Yeast Brown Food and Yellow Food). The media is available in narrow vials, wide vials, and bottles.

 UMCCTS Biospecimen, Tissue and Tumor Bank 

Director: Karl Simin, PhD
The UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science (UMCCTS) Biospecimen, Tissue and Tumor Bank is an open access biorepository that provides stewardship of two archival collections: (1) oncology specimens in a variety of storage formats from over 9,000 cancer patients, and (2) blood-derived specimens from over 11,000 people. Together, these collections comprise over 140,000 specimens. The core provides these specimens to researchers at UMass Chan, and to external commercial clients, including regional biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

In addition, the UMCCTS Biorepository, Tissue and Tumor Bank archives specimens for the UMass Avatar Institute, which has recruited >600 patient tumor/blood donors to develop patient-derived xenograft (PDX) tumor models with humanized immune systems. It also facilitates the collection and processing of clinical specimens for various studies, including the national, multi-site Alcoholic Hepatitis Network (AlcHepNet) project. Notably, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the core processed 500+ blood draws for Remdesivir and Favipiravir drug trials and COVID-19 convalescent plasma studies.