CELL CULTURE CORE

University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

1. Description of the Core Center members indicated a strong need for a Cell Culture Core in 2000 for services related to primary cells and established cell lines, as well as manipulating gene expression in cell lines, which was not being provided by the other Scientific Cores in the Center or in the University of Pennsylvania. This was based upon results of surveys and discussions within the internal advisory committee and the external advisory committee. This was felt to advance the Center's missions of scientific research and collaborations by Center investigators in the following fashion: 1. To meet the increasing current and future demands by Center investigators for primary cells (colonocytes, fibroblasts, endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, esophageal keratinocytes, pancreatic ductal cells) and standardized cultured cells. 2. To incorporate into biological experiments maintenance of primary cells in three-dimensional culture techniques, which mimic in vivo conditions. 3. To establish a centralized availability of cell cultures ensures continuous quality control for biological experiments. 4. To provide cost-effective services to those members who lack a sophisticated infrastructure for cell culture. Since 2000, the cell culture core' usage grew admirably and it provided leadership in isolating and characterizing primary cells from rodents and humans, as well as to forge new directions in three-dimensional cultures that will be elaborated upon later. In 2002-2003, as both a reflection of the dynamic nature of scientific cores within DDRCC, in response to Center member needs, and in concert with recommendations from the internal and external advisory committees, a decision was made by the Center leadership to incorporate the following: (1) retroviral vector production and application to digestive and liver cell lines; (2) incorporation of lentiviral vector production and application to quiescent digestive and liver cell lines. These innovative technologies permitted Center investigators the opportunity to achieve durable expression of genes of interest in order to study their biological properties. Concurrently, the School of Medicine, Cancer Center and Department of Pathology invested heavily in Dr. Carl June and his extensive laboratory as the centralized location for retroviral and lentiviral vector production and storage. Dr. June is an international authority in these technologies and their applications to diverse cell types-epithelial, lymphocytic, endothelial. As a result of Dr. June's shifting priorities to the new Translational Research Center building and links to human based clinical trials, and the unfortunate passing away of Dr. Carroll, Technical Director, (due to pancreatic cancer in early 2010), a decision was made to shift the directorship of the Cell Culture Core to Dr. Erie Robertson based upon discussions with the internal advisory board and external advisory board, and reporting to the NIH. His team is outstanding with Dr. Hiroshi Nakagawa, Research Associate Professor of Medicine, is Associate Director of the Core, Ms. Meghan Shirley, research technician, and Dr. Meenhard Herlyn as a consultant. Thus, the Core provides services in the generation of primary, immortalized and transformed mouse and human cell lines, maintain a repository of cell lines, maintains a repository of viral vectors, generates stable knockdown of pivotal genes through RNA interference, and provides instruction in cell culture techniques as elaborated upon in the next section.