Facilities
The CTRC offers investigators a number of facilities and laboratories to use for their investigations:
Main Campus CTRC
The main campus CTRC is an 11,000-square-foot unit dedicated to supporting pediatric and adult research. It is comprised of a 12-bed inpatient unit, including four beds for sleep research, located on A7 Central, and a 12-room outpatient unit in Location E, second floor.
Researchers can also make use of “scatter beds” for research throughout Cincinnati Children’s. Planned additional services include: “scatter bed” support and broader outpatient support beyond Cincinnati Children’s, and support for investigators utilizing University and Holmes hospitals, UC Barrett Cancer Center, Drake Center Rehabilitative Hospital and other community hospitals.
Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) Satellite Facility
The VA Medical Center CTRC satellite facility is a 3,000-square-foot unit for adult subjects with two inpatient rooms able to support cardiac monitoring, four outpatient rooms and three procedure rooms. It is on the fourth floor of the Cincinnati VA Medical Center, three blocks from the Cincinnati Children’s main campus. The outpatient facility operates 7 am-5 pm Monday through Friday. This facility also offers inpatient and sleep study facilities by arrangement.
Cincinnati Center for Clinical Research (CCCR)
The CCCR is a 53,500-square-foot unit supporting research in children and adults. It is comprised of a 36-bed extended stay unit and an 18-room outpatient unit. It is on Cincinnati Children’s Oak Campus, six blocks from the Cincinnati Children’s Main Campus. This facility is designed to meet the specific needs of projects with a high volume of outpatient visits.
Core Laboratories
The CTRC Core Laboratories provide diverse facilities for investigators:
The 1,000-square-foot Biochemistry Core Laboratory, in Location R, has a staff of four experienced technicians. It houses analytical techniques and equipment including a clinical chemistry analyzer, HPLC, RIA, ELISA and IRMA.
The Sample Processing Laboratory, on the CTRC outpatient unit, houses a refrigerated centrifuge and short-term storage at temperatures of 0ºC, -20ºC and -80ºC. The lab also offers a YSI glucose analyzer for rapid bedside testing. Processing is available 24 hours a day by arrangement.
Bionutrition and Body Composition Core
The Bionutrition Core provides research equipment and a kitchen in addition to the CTRC’s metabolic kitchen. The metabolic kitchen at the Cincinnati Children’s Oak Campus is available for careful preparation of food in selected studies, and the Main Campus CTRC also has a small kitchen for preparation of food and other test supplies. The core also offers researchers an indirect calorimeter for measurement of energy expenditure.
The Body Composition Core is in the CTRC unit and provides instrumentation for imaging techniques. We have two dual beam X-ray densitometers (Hologic 4500A DXAs) and a peripheral quantitative computerized tomography densitometer (pQCT) system. There is an additional DXA at the CCCR at Cincinnati Children’s Oak Campus.
