Elizabeth Blackburn Lab

Jue Lin, PhD, PI

Research Biochemist, Laboratory of Elizabeth Blackburn
Director of Telomere Core
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
University of California, San Francisco

Jue Lin Email

https://blackburnlab.ucsf.edu

This project will optimize pre-analytical and analytical conditions for qPCR, focusing on three specimen types: whole blood, the most commonly used specimen for TL in population-based studies; dried blood spots (DBS), a non-invasive collection method widely used to collect neonatal samples, and saliva, another non-invasive home collection method. Specifically, this project will 1) Determine the best DNA extraction method(s) for whole blood, dried blood spots and saliva; 2) Develop quality control criteria for DNA samples including DNA concentration, integrity and OD260/OD280 and OD260/OD230 ratios; 3) Test the effects of DNA storage time and storage temperature; 4) Compare different commercial assay master mixes. As an additional objective, the proposed project aims to create a set of fully characterized quality control (QC) DNA samples and a reference standard genomic DNA sample, to be used as shared resources for labs that measure TL via qPCR.

TEAM MEMBERS

Belinda L. Needham, PhD, M.A. Co-I

Associate Professor, Epidemiology
Co-Director, Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health
School of Public Health
University of Michigan

Stephen Gregorich, PhD, Co-I

Professor
School of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco

Dana Smith

Specialist, Laboratory of Elizabeth Blackburn
Lab Manager of Telomere Core
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
University of California, San Francisco

Calvin Wu

Staff Research Associate, Laboratory of Elizabeth Blackburn
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
University of California, San Francisco

CURRENT LAB PROTOCOLS

Lin Lab Telomere Length Measurement using qPCR

KEY PUBLICATIONS

Epel, S. PNAS 2004.pdf

Lin, J. J Immunol Methods. 2010.pdf

Lin, J. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2019.pdf