Hypoxia Culture Suite

体内的细胞在氧环境中发育和居住，氧环境基本上低于大气中的氧。低氧途径在控制干细胞发育、组织形态发生和微生物-细胞相互作用等众多细胞生物学过程中的作用突出了低氧暴露的重要性。低氧会影响细胞代谢、有丝分裂、基因表达和蛋白质翻译后修饰等过程。出于这个原因，用于研究细胞生物学过程的体外培养系统的设计应该实现最能代表体内环境的生理氧气条件。该研究工具和仪器提案的核心是获得一个生理培养工作站，该工作站专门设计用于在细胞培养建立、细胞维持、实验和细胞收获期间精确控制氧气水平。值得注意的是，这种独立的培养系统对于多个UBC NSERC资助的研究项目的发展至关重要，这些项目对研究胎盘的发育生物学（Beristain;主要申请人）、微生物-宿主细胞相互作用（Sly共同申请人）和器官发育中的转录网络（Taubert;共同申请人）具有广泛的兴趣。例如，Beristain博士的长期目标是致力于了解控制滋养层生物学的细胞和分子过程。这一新的基础设施对于促进Beristain博士的短期目标至关重要，该目标旨在了解氧传感过程如何在早期胎盘发育过程中协调细胞分化和滋养层的特化。广泛地说，这种生理培养系统将允许实施三维滋养层（Beristain）和肠道类器官（Sly & Vallance），以及旨在研究环境环境和应激源（如低氧/缺氧）如何控制发育中的转录网络和控制细胞过程（如细胞死亡，存活和稳态）的细胞培养系统。

Cells in the body develop and reside in oxygen environments that are substantially less than atmospheric oxygen. The importance of low oxygen exposure is highlighted by the role that hypoxic pathways play in controlling numerous cell biological processes from stem cell development, tissue morphogenesis, and microbial- cell interactions. Cellular processes stemming from metabolism, mitosis, gene expression, and protein post translational modification are impacted by low oxygen. For this reason, the design of in vitro culture systems used to study cell biology processes should implement physiological oxygen conditions that best represent in vivo environment. This Research Tools and Instruments proposal is centered around the acquirement of a physiological culture workstation that is specifically designed to be able to precisely control oxygen levels during cell culture establishment, cell maintenance, experimentation, and cell harvesting. Notably, this stand-alone culture system is essential for the advancement of multiple UBC NSERC -funded research programs who have broad interests in studying developmental biology of the placenta (Beristain; principal applicant), microbial -host cell interactions (Sly co--applicants), and transcriptional networks in organ development (Taubert; co--applicant). For example, Dr. Beristain's long-term objectives are devoted to understanding cellular and molecular processes controlling trophoblast biology. This new infrastructure will be essential for furthering Dr. Beristain's short--term objectives aimed at understanding how oxygen sensing processes coordinate cell differentiation and specification of trophoblasts in during early placental development. Broadly, this physiological culture system will allow for the implementation of 3--dimensional trophoblast (Beristain) and intestinal organoids (Sly & Vallance), and cell culture systems designed to examine how environmental enironments and stressors like low oxygen/hypoxia control transcriptional networks in development and control cellular processes like cell death, survival, and homeostasis.