Duke Skin Disease Research Core Center

描述（由申请人提供）：皮肤是一个复杂的器官，通过许多不同细胞类型的相互作用不断更新。了解这些细胞类型之间的相互作用对于全面了解人类皮肤病的机制和开发有效的新疗法至关重要。重要的工具可以加速皮肤生物学和疾病的细胞和机械发现。这些工具包括分子技术的进步，能够产生基因定义的角质形成细胞、成纤维细胞和其他与皮肤病相关的细胞。通过将这些方法与创建体外和体内人体皮肤模型的技术相结合，我们可以探索遗传修饰在正常和病变皮肤中的功能影响。为了提供这些和相关技术，以推进皮肤生物学和疾病的发现和转化，我们建议创建杜克皮肤病研究核心中心（SDRC）。我们的总体目标是提供关键的难以复制的技术和资源，以促进基因、细胞、组织和动物水平的研究，这些研究与理解皮肤生物学和皮肤病的发病机制有关，并最终促进皮肤病新疗法的发展。我们提出以下具体目标。1)建立细胞和基因修饰核心，以支持角质形成细胞、成纤维细胞和其他感兴趣的细胞的发展，使用最先进的基因和细胞修饰技术进行特定的遗传操作。2)建立动物模型和组织工程核心，提供对一系列全皮肤模型的访问和专业知识。3)利用新的和现有的资源建立一个组织采购和分析核心，这将提供一个高质量的，cap批准的组织和血清库，用于人体组织和血液以及相关的病理/组织病理学分析。4)制定积极的充实计划，包括试点资助计划、转化和创新研究支持计划、系列研讨会、年度会议和指导研究计划，旨在提高学生和医学生，特别是代表性不足的少数民族对皮肤研究的兴趣。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A complex organ, skin is constantly renewing through the interactions of many distinct cell types. Understanding the interactions among these cell types is crucial to achieving complete understanding of the mechanisms of human skin disease and for development of effective new therapies. Important tools can accelerate cellular and mechanistic discoveries in skin biology and disease. These tools include advances in molecular technology that enable generation of genetically defined keratinocytes, fibroblasts and other cells relevant to skin disease. By coupling these approaches with techniques to create in vitro and in vivo human skin models, we can probe the functional effects of genetic modifications in both normal and diseased skin. To provide access to these and related technologies to advance discovery and translation in skin biology and disease, we propose creation of the Duke Skin Disease Research Core Center (SDRC). Our overall objective is to provide access to critical difficult-to-duplicate technologies and resources to facilitate studies at the gene, cellular, tisse and animal levels with relevance in understanding skin biology and pathogenesis of skin disease, and ultimately to facilitate development of new treatments for skin disease. We propose the following specific aims. 1) Establish a Cell and Gene Modification Core to support development of keratinocyte, fibroblast and other cells of interest with specific genetic manipulations using state of the art gene and cellular modification techniques. 2) Establish an Animal Model and Tissue Engineering Core to provide access to and expertise on a range of whole skin models. 3) Leverage new and existing resources to establish a Tissue Procurement and Analysis Core, which will provide a high quality, CAP-approved tissue and serum bank for human tissue and blood and related pathological/histopathological analyses. 4) Develop an active enrichment program, including a pilot grants program, Translational and Innovation Research Support grants, seminar series, annual meetings and a mentored research program directed at increasing interest of students and medical students, especially underrepresented minorities, in skin research.