Research Capacity Core

The Research Capacity Core

The Research Capacity Core supports DSU’s research infrastructure for biomedical, social, and behavioral research related to health disparities and health equity. The Core offers support to qualitative research and evaluation, as well as future Pilot Projects and outreach activities in the community. The Core is also comprised of Microscopy and Cell Electrophysiology cores that provide crucial resources to biomedical researchers at DSU and Pilot Project PIs. Dr. Derald Wentzein serves as Core Director.

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THE QUALITATIVE & QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH & EVALUATION CORE

The Qualitative and Quantitative Research and Evaluation Core provides services to help researchers enhance the methodological potential of their research projects. The Core offers consultation services and technical assistance to help researchers with grant writing and research proposal design; support and assistance for qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis; assistance with design and implementation of one-on-one interviews, participant observation, and focus groups; statistical methodology selection, and statistical analysis with M.S. Excel, Stata, SPSS, and REDCap. The Core also provides consultation for program evaluations and evaluation plans. This includes, but is not limited to, health programs and educational programs.

SERVICES PROVIDED

  • Technical assistance with qualitative data collection including interview guide development and interviewing technique support.
  • Consultation services to support development and implementation of focus groups.
  • Training and assistance with planning and implementation of participant observation techniques.
  • Support for qualitative data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation including, coding qualitative data, content analysis, narrative, and thematic analysis.
  • Transcription services for one-on-one interviews and focus group interviews.
  • Access to key software important for social, behavioral, and demographic research projects such as tools for qualitative analysis of textual, audio, video, and image data such as NVivo, Dedoose, ATLAS.ti, and REDCap.

​​​​​         Click here to learn more about REDCap.

         Click here to request a REDCAP account.

  • Training and information sessions on Photovoice.
  • Review, feedback, and assessment of grant applications and research proposals.
  • Provide research design, data management, and biomedical and medical informatics through a partnership with the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Research Design (BERD) Core of the NIH-funded Delaware Clinical & Translational Research Center (ACCEL).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE MICROSCOPY CORE

SERVICES PROVIDED

  • Access to advanced imaging and spectroscopy instrumentation (confocal laser scanning microscopes from Zeiss, Crest Optics, Horiba., fluorescence and DIC microscopes, an FEI Scanning Electron Microscope, and a Bruker Atomic Force Microscope, Anasys NanoIR microscope, FTIR, UV-VS spectroscopy).
  • Expertise in electron and optical microscopy, sample preparation, spectroscopy, and image analysis.

 

OSCAR Building
OSCAR Equipment
OSCAR Equipment
OSCAR Building

 

 

THE CELL ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY CORE

SERVICES PROVIDED

  • General consultation on projects of neuronal function study, including experimental design.
  • Assistance with data acquisition, data analysis, and troubleshooting with the Multi-Electrode Array System (MEA 2100).
  • Perform data collection, data analysis, and figure preparation for whole-cell patch clamp studies of membrane excitability, ion channel currents and synaptic transmission in neurons from cultured cells and acute brain slices.
  • Assistance with Automated Patch Clamp (IonFlux) cell preparation, transfection, cell culture, data analysis and figure preparation for biophysical/pharmacological characterization of ion channels expressed in cultured cells.