Pam Quirk Brain Health and Biomarker Laboratory

Department of Brain Health

Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV

The Pam Quirk Brain Health and Biomarker Laboratory serves as a biobank and biomarker discovery resource for our research and numerous clinical collaborators to store and process, and share human patient specimens. This includes blood samples, cerebral spinal fluid (CSF), and tissues to be utilized for research, particularly in the search for novel biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injury. Some of the collaborations with the Pam Quirk Brain Health and Biomarker Laboratory include a longitudinal investigation of biomarkers in cognitively impaired patients as part of the Center for Neurodegeneration and Translational Neuroscience (CNTN) Center of Excellence, the Nevada Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (NeADRC), and several R01 funded grants with the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. In addition, the Pam Quirk Brain Health and Biomarker Laboratory is involved in research investigating traumatic brain injury (TBI) and several additional collaboration at UNLV. The Pam Quirk Brain Health and Biomarker Laboratory houses a unique constellation of techniques that range from the Quanterix Simoa platform, Luminex, flow cytometry, and several additional cellular and molecular biology techniques. We also provide genotyping in our biomarker discovery workflow. The Pam Quirk Brain Health and Biomarker Laboratory has also recently added several mass spectrometry devices to expand to proteomics and metabolomics investigations of patient samples. Please see below for an overview of the platforms utilized in our biomarker discovery.

In collaboration with Shimadzu, we have recently received several state-of-the-art instruments [Mass Spectrometers] that will allow us to investigate protein shape, post translational modifications, protein subunits and functional interactions, and more, with relevance to neurodegenerative diseases including AD, in both mouse and human samples, with extreme precision. Furthermore, we have recently acquired a Quanterix HD-X Analyzer to examine neurofilament-light and tau phosphorylation with extreme quantification. Below are instruments that are utilized by the TBU.