About the TDC Facility
Founded in November 2016 and supported by the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute (Greehey CCRI), the Target Discovery Core (TDC) occupies 1,000 square feet of laboratory space in the state-of-the-art Barshop Institute on the UTHSA Greehey Campus. This space is designed to accommodate the TDC’s expansion and is conveniently located within walking distance of the Greehey CCRI, South Texas Research Facility, and Mays Cancer Center (MCC), with quick access to the UTHSA main campus via shuttle.
The TDC features a dedicated tissue culture room with the necessary equipment and highly trained personnel to expedite service requests. Notable equipment includes the Vala Sciences IC200-KIC high-content imaging system, robotically integrated with a Liconic microplate incubator for live and fixed cell imaging, and the BMG Labtech Pherastar FS multimode plate reader for fluorescence or luminescence assays. For rapid screening plate processing, the LabCyte Echo acoustic dispensing system handles the plating of library oligos and compounds, while the Tecan Freedom EVO 150 and Bio-Tek EL406 bulk dispenser manage reagents, buffers, and cell dispensing.
The TDC houses the V4 human genome siRNA Library, covering 21,584 human genes with 64,752 siRNAs, as well as pooled and arrayed CRISPR libraries for human gene knockout and activation screenings.
For pooled CRISPR screenings, the TDC collaborates with the CPRIT-supported Cancer Genome Sequencing and Computation Core (CGSCC) at GCCRI/UTHSA for next-generation sequencing, data storage, and analysis.
Mission
The TDC’s mission is to provide UT Health San Antonio (UTHSA) and other Texas research institutions with cutting-edge target identification and validation (TIV) technologies to drive fundamental cancer biology research and accelerate cancer drug discovery.
Summary of Services
The TDC assists cancer researchers, including those focused on pediatric cancers, in rapidly identifying and validating new cancer targets. This supports the development of novel cancer therapies through target deconvolution (identifying the targets of known anticancer agents) and target discovery (finding new targets for therapeutic development).
Key services include:
- Genome-wide and selected RNAi screening
- Pooled CRISPR genome-wide knockout (KO) and activation screening
- Arrayed genome-wide and selected gene CRISPR KO screening
- Gene editing and isogenic cell line generation
- Activity-based protein profiling (ABPP)
- Proximity labeling (PL)
These advanced technologies enable researchers to discover and validate new cancer targets, contributing to the development of innovative cancer treatments.