CLCS occupies 4400 square feet on the 6th floor of the Wohl Clinic Building and 688 square feet on the 5th floor of the connected Wohl Hospital Building at Washington University School of Medicine. The work area is under double lock with Washington University providing 24-hr security and monitoring.

Housed within this facility is the Laboratory Services area where samples are accepted and logged in. The Collection Kit Preparation/Shipping area is directly adjacent and is used to support central lab activity for multicenter clinical trials and send-out testing for individual researchers.

We also perform more labor-intensive radioimmunoassays (RIAs) and plate-based ELISA testing on an as-needed basis for researchers. Most any commercially available RIA or ELISA kit can be used for analysis with our gamma counters and plate readers.

In contrast to a typical hospital laboratory that has relatively fixed computer needs, Core Lab for Clinical Studies is focused on research testing and allows us to adapt to the special data handling requirements of its clients. The high throughput instruments are interfaced directly with our laboratory information system. After release, data are transmitted in a variety of electronic formats to our clients. Data are backed up nightly and a policy is in place for data handling during computer downtime. Computer services are HIPAA compliant and part of the Washington University intranet.

A dedicated long-term storage freezer room with eighteen -70° C freezers is alarmed and monitored and has a high-capacity air handler to dissipate the increased heat load.