The Cellular Morphology Core laboratory is constructed to meet the increasing demands of cell biology and transgene detection in the area of gene therapy research. Routine morphology support in the form of frozen, paraffin, and glycolmethacrylate sectioning for light level microscopy (LM) as well as standard transmission electron microscopy (EM) will be provided as a comprehensive service to investigators participating in P01 projects. In addition, the core will emphasize state of the art methodologies for detecting transgene expression including in situ hybridization, immunocytochemistry, and histochemical detection of beta-galactosidase and alkaline phosphatase reporter genes. The cellular morphology core will provide techniques of in situ hybridization and immunocytochemical detection of transgenes as comprehensive services to preclinical studies of the Animal Models Core (project I and II) and the clinical studies of the Human Applications Laboratory (project III). The cellular morphology core will interact with participating P01 projects by two mechanisms: i) comprehensive service, and ii) facilities and technical support. Comprehensive services will be predominantly applied to clinical and preclinical projects. This will assure the minimal amount of technical variability and high quality assurance. Alternatively, the CMC will provide comprehensive services of in situ hybridization, immunocytochemistry, and histochemistry through the initial developmental stages of studies pertaining to projects I and II. Once methods for developmental studies have been defined within the core, the technologies will be transferred to individual investigators of projects I and II. During this phase of developmental projects, users will have full support for routine sectioning and full access to equipment and commonly used reagents for specialized techniques. Due to the specialized nature of electron microscopy, all EM services will be provided as a comprehensive service. Dr. Engelhardt currently directs the operations of the Morphology Core at the Institute for Human Gene Therapy. He has published studies involving CFTR localization by in situ hybridization and immunocytochemistry in human bronchus as well as several manuscripts which used gene transfer technology to better understand the biology of human proximal respiratory epithelium in xenografts, mouse liver and cotton rat lung.
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