Our laboratory is preparing to undergo renovation.
For questions about available services message ONRhelp@uw.edu or fill out the CSDE Lab Request Form and select “School of Nursing Faculty/Staff/Student”.
Laboratory Services
The UW School of Nursing Office for Nursing Research offers state of the art, comprehensive research laboratory services for clients in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
From cell to society, research at the UW School of Nursing spans topics, settings and populations to inform how we can improve the health of all. A key component of this is our ONR Laboratory Testing Services. For decades the Laboratory Testing Services has perform timely, rigorous, efficient, and reproducible biobehavioral analyses. Today, our laboratory’s infrastructure and technical experts are available to help you design, execute, and analyze your clinical and translational data. These services are available to all members of the UW community and throughout the United States.
The ONR Labs specialize in the following four areas:
Biochemical Lab
Whether your research study involves hair samples, serum samples, saliva samples or fecal samples, the UW School of Nursing Biochemical Laboratory contains the equipment and expertise you need to efficiently, rigorously, and reproducibly analyze your samples for your target biomarkers. Routinely our team prepares, stores, analyzes and interprets samples for a range of human biomarkers including hormones, cytokines, enzymes and peptides. We are also available to help interpret these findings and prepare data the data for scientific and community dissemination.
Immune Function and Molecular Genetics Lab
The incredible human immune system is implicated in much of the disease process. To better investigate and ultimately understand its role in health across the lifespan, the UW SoN created our Immune Function and Molecular Genetics Lab. The Immune Function laboratory contains cutting-edge instrumentation integral to studies related to nucleic acid and protein aspects of scientific research and allows investigators to utilize technologies such as Real-time PCR QuantStudio 3 (Applied Biosystems), semi-automated DNA and RNA extraction, 2-Dimensional gel electrophoresis DIGE (GE Health) for protein hybridizations, and nucleic acid quantitation by Nano drop spectroscopy. DNA and RNA can be extracted from both whole blood, as well as from hair and saliva samples using commercially available extraction kits and protocols. DNA is also analyzed by the Invitrogen Pro-Quantum system.
Physiologic Assessment
To help investigators bridge clinical and translational research, the UW SoN also maintains a state-of-the art Physiologic Testing Laboratory includes. We maintain and provide training in a number of physiological measurement tools including
• A secure and private area for other physiologic testing, including thermal (DNIC) inputs. This facility is currently located on the 4th floor of T-wing, specifically in the CSU (Clinical Studies Unit)
• A BodPod which measures an accurate BMI index for human subjects in special research studies
• ActiGraph physical activity monitors (i.e., Actigraphs) are available for objective, rigorous measure of physical activity and sedentary time
• In addition, if availability exists, these studies can be undertaken in rooms associated in current Sleep Laboratory
Each year, the physiological lab equipment is used in almost a dozen extramurally-funded research studies and maintains up-to-date protocols for physiological data collection, analysis, and interpretation are available for all investigators. For service availability, costs, and general operating procedures of the lab, and to include lab services in a research proposal, please contact the Office of Nursing Research.
Sleep Research
Founded by Dr. Elizabeth “Betty” Giblin in the 1970’s to study sleep patterns in adults with Alzheimer’s Disease, the UW School of Nursing was the first nursing school in the United States to launch a fully functioning sleep research laboratory. Home to more than 25 NIH-funded studies since its inception, the SoN Sleep Research Lab is fully equipped to accommodate both pediatric and adult research participants and offers investigators the ability to study a wide-arrange of sleep research. Special features of the sleep lab include: Polysomnographic recordings of sleep that can be obtained from three subjects simultaneously by means of a computer-based sleep EMBLA acquisition system; a portable computer-based polysomnographic sleep recording system is available for monitoring sleep in home or clinic settings; and a variety of Spectrum Actiwatches (Mini-Mitter® actigraphy) are available for recording of activity. Software is also available for scoring the activity data for sleep detection in addition to analysis of temperature data.