The Iron and Heme Core Facility has been in operation since 2016 and is part of the NIDDK sponsored Center for Iron and Heme Disorders (NIH U54DK110858). It is also serves as one of the University of Utah shared-resource Health Science Cores facilities which are established service/recharge centers offering services to research facilities across the country. The Iron and Heme Core provides analyses of heme and precursor compounds and metals present in biological samples. The core specializes in the UPLC quantification of heme and other tetrapyrroles, and the measurement of activities of all eight enzymes in the heme biosynthetic pathway, and in the ICP-MS analysis of iron and other common metals in biological systems.
This Facility is equipped mainly with two Waters Acquity ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) systems (Classic and H-Class Plus), each with its own solvent manager, sample manager, tandem high sensitivity photodiode array and fluorescence detectors, and reverse phase C18 column. An Agilent 7900 ICP-mass spectrometer with an SPS4 auto sampler is dedicated for metal analysis. Other supporting equipment allow for sample storage, handling, processing for analysis and data processing, and some of these are a dark room, fume hoods, a deoxygenation system, refrigeration and freezer space, a spectrophotometer, centrifuges, various tissue and cell disruptors, hot blocks, mixers and sample dryers.
With more than a quarter century of performing laboratory research on the heme biosynthetic pathway, the people with the Iron and Heme Core have contributed to high impact research that has lead to publications in PNAS, Elife, J. Biol. Chem., MicrobiologyOpen, Chemical Reviews, and in Blood Cells, Molecules, and Diseases.
8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Monday – Friday
Iron and Heme Core Consultation Hour
Every Monday at 10:00 AM (Mountain Time)
Invite link: https://utah.zoom.us/j/8913659384
Passcode: request passcode from hector.bergonia@hsc.utah.edu
Feel free to ask any question that you have about the NIDDK CCEH sponsored Utah Iron and Heme Core. Call (801) 581-6870, send an Email or join the weekly Zoom meeting.
Service Name | Sample Count | CIHD run setup fee | CIHD per sample price | Non-CIHD run setup fee ** | Non-CIHD per sample price |
Heme, PPIX & ZnPPIX* | 1 – 24 | $355.00 | – | $920.00 | – |
Heme, PPIX & ZnPPIX, extra run required* | 1 – 24 | $270.00 | – | $555.00 | – |
Intermediate porphyrins | 1 – 24 | $315.00 | – | $880.00 | – |
Porphyrin I & III isomers | 1 – 24 | $315.00 | – | $1020.00 | – |
ALA | 1 – 12 | $305.00 | – | $870.00 | – |
PBG | 1 – 12 | $305.00 | – | $870.00 | – |
ALAS enzyme assay | 1 – 12 | $410.00 | – | $1540.00 | – |
ALAD enzyme assay | 1 – 12 | $305.00 | – | $1440.00 | – |
ALAD enzyme assay | 1 – 12 | $305.00 | – | $1440.00 | – |
U3S enzyme assay | 1 – 12 | $305.00 | – | $1440.00 | – |
UROD enzyme assay | 1 – 12 | $305.00 | – | $1440.00 | – |
CPOX enzyme assay | 1 – 12 | $380.00 | – | $1520.00 | – |
PPOX enzyme assay | 1 – 12 | $380.00 | – | $1520.00 | – |
PPOX enzyme assay | 1 – 12 | $335.00 | – | $1470.00 | – |
Reverse FECH assay | 1 – 12 | $380.00 | – | $1520.00 | – |
Spectral analysis of hemes (pyridine hemochromogen) | 1 – 12 | $50.00 | – | $1150.00 | $11.00 |
ICP-MS | 1 – 36 | $465.00 | $2.20 | $880.00 | $2.20 |
BCA assay (for metal analysis only) | 1 – 12 | $15.50 | – | $115.00 | – |
Tissue homogenization (bead mill) | – | – | $6.00 | – | $8.70 |
** Educational non-CIHD pricing has an F&A multiplier of 1.54 of the total obtained using this table. Commercial pricing has multiplier of 2.0
Contact us for similar services not listed above.
For most assays please send the samples as follows:
Sample Type | Minumum Quantity | Form/Condition |
Serum, Body Fluids | 1 mL | Quickly Frozen |
Cells | > 100 uL packed cell pallet | Washed with PBS, pelleted, supernatant discarded and then frozen |
Tissue | ~ 100 mg | Flash Frozen |
Fresh Blood | 1 standard collection tube | With anticoagulant, in ice bath, and covered with foil |
Feed and other complex/hard materials | 1 g | dried and ground to fine powder |
Hector Bergonia
Iron and Heme Facility Director
We would like to thank you for acknowledging the our facility. This recognition allows us to highlight the impact of your work and demonstrates the important contributions of our facility makes to research across the University of Utah. The recognition our core receives from your acknowledgments also aids in receiving grants and further funding for equipment and services we can provide to our users.
In published papers that used instruments at our facility and notably involved staff members please use the following format:
“We acknowledge (facility name) at the University of Utah for use of equipment (insert instrument/service details here), and thank (insert any notable staff member – if desired) for their assistance.”
In published papers where a staff member assisted you in addition to the requested services please use the following format:
“We acknowledge (facility name) at the University of Utah for use of equipment (insert instrument/service details here), and thank (insert staff member-required) for their assistance in (service provided).”
For publications resulting from collaborations that assisted with the methodologies, planning process and execution of your experiment in addition to equipment usage we require Co-author attribution on your publication for our facility and any staff members who provided substantial contributions to the originating project.
Iron and Heme Core Facility
Wintrobe Research Building Rm#621
26 North Medical Drive
Salt Lake City, UT 84132