Robert Searles, Ph.D.

Biography
A native Oregonian, Dr. Searles received his B.S. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University and his Ph.D. from the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Searles was a post-doctoral fellow and staff scientist in the Division of Neuroscience at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center. He moved to the ORPRC Division of Pathobiology and Immunology and studied the genomic structure of primate gamma-2 herpesviruses, from which he was recruited to begin the ORPRC Bioinformatics Group. He currently holds the positions of Staff Scientist II at the ORPRC, Affiliate Assistant Scientist at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute and manager of the Hedco / Oregon Cancer Institute spotted microarray core at the Oregon Health and Science University.

Research Overview
The Hedco / Oregon Cancer Institute cDNA Microarray Shared Resource has been established to provide spotted microarray services to the OHSU community. A generous donation from the Hedco Foundation allowed the purchasing of our major equipment. We have two Cartesian Technologies Pyxsys 5500XL microarray printers, two Packard ScanArray 4000 XL laser microarray scanners, two MJ Research Tetrad four-unit 96-well thermal cyclers, and a Qiagen BioRobot 8000.

The Spotted Microarray Core shares a laboratory with the Affymetrix Microarray Core in space provided in the new Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute on the OHSU West Campus in Hillsboro. The spotted core has several options for OHSU researchers. We print a number of species-specific microarrays for general use. Our current libraries include a 41,000 clone human library, a 15,000 clone mouse library, and a 5000 clone rat library. At present we will be printing about 5300 genes per slide in duplicate, so the entire contents of the libraries will not be immediately available. These arrays can be used for cross-species work, since the cDNA PCR products, 400 to 2000 bp in length, are long enough to allow for base mismatching that might interfere with short oligonucleotide arrays.

We are also prepared to print custom slides developed through consultation with individual researchers. These slides can be made with PCR products or with long oligonucleotides (70- to 75-mers). Custom slides of up to 2000 genes can be easily designed and prepared.
More information regarding SMC policy and procedures, available arrays, and pricing can be obtained at the SMC website: www.ohsu.edu/gmsr/smc.