CORE--TISSUE CULTURE AND VECTOR

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The Cell Culture and Virus Vector Core Laboratory provides essential cell culture tools and the expertise our investigators need to make these tools work for them in their cancer-focused projects. This Core Laboratory has expanded its services since the last grant cycle and has developed a state-of-the-art virus production facility for preclinical trials in animals targeted for eventual cancer therapeutic trials. We will work closely with the produced Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility that is planned for completion in 2000 for production of virus vectors for use in human clinical trials. This added expertise has increased the Core's ability to facilitate translational research and scientific excellence in alignment with the overall goals of the laboratory. We currently provide a wide array of essential services to Cancer Center members including: providing large quantities of virus vectors, tissue culture cells, media and reagents; maintaining a repository of transformed secondary and continuous cell strains and cell lines; providing assistance to investigators in DNA cloning, molecular characterizing of cloned recombinant DNA, amplification and purification of recombinant plasmid DNA; making available specialized equipment and a centralized biohazard containment facility for use by investigators; aiding new investigators in starting their research programs; and cryopreservation of non-transformed and transformed tissue culture cells. We have also developed new services which include production of vaccinia virus and simian virus 5 vectors; methods for growth and maintenance of amphotropic recombinant retroviruses in murine culture cells; expansion of the cell repository to include specialized transformed cell lines requested; and establishment of methods for expansion of transformed cells for large scale extraction and characterization of proteins and lipids. Current usage of the Cull Culture and Virus Vector Core Laboratory by Cancer Center approved projects has been 75% of overall use. over the past two years, due to the substantial reduction in the size of the Cancer Center Support Grant, the Analytical Chemistry Core Laboratory received 1% of its funding from the CCSG. In the current proposal we are requesting $69,723 or 53% of the total annual budget of the laboratory ($131,230).