Duke University School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine are piloting a program for 2026 where select core facilities at each institution will offer the “internal break-even” core price to customers from the other institution.
Please see the list of UNC cores participating in this partnership as well as instructions for use and FAQs.
Participating Carolina Cores
Core Director: Dale Cowley, PhD
Core Contact E-mail: dcowley@med.unc.edu
Description: A full suite of genome engineering services for the generation of genetically modified mouse and cell line models for biomedical research including CRISPR/Cas9, ES Cell Gene Targeting, transgenic mouse services, and more.
Included Technology: All
Core Director: Stu Parnham, PhD
Email: stitch@ad.unc.edu
Description: Bruker Avance III HD 500, 600, 700, and 850 MHz spectrometers as well as training, consultation, and concierge data collection by the core director as well as access to Fragment-based Drug Discovery, using the cores ‘In-House’ 19F and 1H fragment libraries, and metabolomics.
Included Technology: All
Core Director: Austin Hepperla, PhD
Email: hepperla@unc.edu
Description: Our team will meet with you before, during and after your project to assist with experimental design, data processing, data analysis and interpretation, figure generation, and manuscript and/or grant preparation. We specialize in high-throughput sequencing and gene expression data, image analysis data, and other biological data.
Included Technology: All
Visit the Bioinformatics and Analytics Research Collaborative
Core Director: Chun Hsin (Josh) Chen, PhD
Email: joshchen@unc.edu
Description: The XCL primarily functions as a service crystallographic facility and houses three single-crystal X-ray diffractometers fully maintained by the XCL Director. Service includes SC-XRD structure determination and various PXRD techniques, microED, and user training is available for both SC- and powder XRD techniques. Additional experiments at Argonne National Laboratory, SCrAPS – Synchrotron Crystallography at Advanced Photon Source, are carried out three times a year for samples that diffract too weakly using the conventional radiation source at the facility.
XCL provides both client- and user-based services.
Included Technology: All
Core Director: Sam Pattenden, PhD
Email: pattenden@unc.edu
Description: HTSF provides access to a full suite of genomic technologies. Oxford Nanopore can produce ultra-long read sequencing reads, limited by DNA length/quality. In our hands we regularly generate reads >100kb. There are a host of applications, including: Rapid sequence identification, utilizing long reads for improved genome assembly, analysis of full length RNA transcripts from cDNA (PCR and PCR-free), direct sequencing of RNA molecules, metagenomic analysis, structural variant detection, and copy number detection in complex regions
Included Technology: Oxford Nanopore Sequencing on the GridION platform
Visit the High-Throughput Sequencing Facility
Core Director: Adriana Beltran, PhD
Email: beltran@med.unc.edu
Description: The Human Pluripotent Cell Core services are designed to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and application in the field of stem cell research by providing researchers with access to high-quality iPSCs, differentiated cells, and expert support.
Included Technology: All
Core Director: Marie Iannone, PhD
Email: miannone@unc.edu
Description: The Mass Cytometry and Cell ‘Omics Core offers comprehensive expertise and support to enable successful mass cytometry experiments. The core provides assistance with mass cytometry panel design, protocol support, antibody procurement, data acquisition and basic support for single cell data analysis in Cytobank.
Included Technology: Mass cytometry
Visit the Mass Cytometry and Cell ‘Omics Core
Core Director: Andrea Azcarate-Peril, PhD
Email: azcarate@med.unc.edu
Description: The mission of the UNC Microbiome Core is to provide the research community with the facilities and expertise to characterize complex microbial communities and microbial interactions. The Core has state of the art instrumentation and extensively trained personnel that provide support from experimental design to data analysis.
Included Technology: All
Core Director: Nate Nicely, PhD
Email: nnicely@email.unc.edu
Description: The core specializes in the production of pure, functional proteins for structural, biophysical, and biochemical studies. It is specifically designed as a “front-end” interface to other components of the UNC Center for Structural Biology (CSB) including x-ray crystallography. In addition, the services of this core are also applicable to other research areas, including recombinant antibody and antigen production as well as stable cell line generation for protein production.
Included Technology: All
Accessing the Cores
Step 1: Contact the Core
Contact the director of the core from the above list to discuss your project and complete any intake consultations or forms. The core will provide a contract for services that must be signed by Duke’s contracting office and returned to the core. If there are no amendments, the core can accept the project request and begin working on the project as soon as the contract is returned.
Step 2: Submit a Core Request
The core director will instruct you on how to set up an account with the core’s invoicing system. Most of UNC's cores utilize iLab. The core director will provide instructions for submitting an order into the queue or reserving equipment.
Step 3: Coordinate Sample Drop-off or On-site Parking (If applicable)
A reserved parking space or permit are available for Duke affiliates who need to drop off samples or come on-site to use core facilities for longer than the 15-30 minute parking limit at building loading docks. Please coordinate parking with the core director who can reserve parking on your behalf.
Step 4: Invoicing, Data Sharing, and Acknowledgement/Authorship Considerations
Payment information will be provided on each invoice. Payment can be made via credit card, check, or ACH transfer as specified in the invoice. Cores do have the right to withhold data or restrict future usage until payment of existing invoices is received. UNC Chapel Hill core facilities should be appropriately acknowledged in any publications they support, including any funding sources. Core directors that contribute materially to research design, data collection and analysis, and/or writing should be considered for authorship pursuant to Authorship Guidelines provided by the Association for Biomolecular Resource Facilities.
Core Partnership: FAQs
The Triangle area of North Carolina has a rich culture of technology and innovation, led in part by innovative research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. This partnership supports research excellence by decreasing the barrier to access instrumentation and expertise at each institution.
Participating cores were selected by research leadership in the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine and Duke University School of Medicine, in conjunction with core facility expertise in assessing complementary technologies.
Decisions around including cores or specific core technologies into future iterations of this agreement prioritizes supporting existing resources at each home institution rather than competing. Requests to include additional cores will be considered on a case-by-case basis and assessed in conjunction with stakeholders from the other university. Statements of interest from UNC Chapel Hill core facilities should be sent to: corefacilities@med.unc.edu. Statements of interest from Duke University core facilities should be sent to Donna Crenshaw
Decisions about which cores can partner within this initiative take into account many factors, including avoiding competition and supporting existing resources at each home institution. Requests can be made to Donna Crenshaw (Duke University) or Chris Gregory (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).