This Biochemical and Molecular Core facility, under the direction of Dr. David Harder with the assistance of Jayashree Narayanan, will provide a centralized professional service to all three projects involved in this Program. The staff will be trained by the project leaders or specialized personnel to perform a variety of procedures required in this Program Project Grant. This facility will maintain complete, computerized and centralized records and well-defined quality control guidelines for all assays. In addition new assays will be developed by Dr. Harder in consultation with investigators to meet the changing needs and directions of the Program. New assays that have thus far been developed by the Core include siRNA technology to silence gene expression, real time PCR to quantitate mRNA levels, metabolic models to record endothelial dysfunction and animal models to measure myocardial infarction. Dr. Harder and Ms. Narayanan have first hand experience in running core laboratories for two other Program Projects. The Core facility is located in the Cardiovascular Center which is in close proximity to the laboratories of the investigators for all three projects.