The Vector Technology Core will provide a centralized service for the production and characterization of gene transfer reagents necessary for each of the individual projects in the Harvard Program in Gene Transfer for Heart, Lung and Blood Disease. In addition to its immediate service functions related to the production and distribution of vectors to investigators in the Program, the Core is designed to be highly flexible, so as to be able to rapidly bring in new gene transfer technologies developed by investigators affiliated with the Program, and develop the methodology necessary to permit the rapid dissemination of those technologies back to investigators in the individual projects. The immediate capabilities of the Core will include the transient production of high titer stocks of conventional retroviral and lentivirus vectors possessing a variety of host ranges, the generation of stable retroviral vector producing cell lines using a number of third and fourth generation packaging cell lines, the production of highly concentrated retroviral/VSV G pseudotypes, and the production of standard AAV vectors and second or third generation adenoviral vectors. In addition to the production of vectors, the Core will also provide expertise in the design and construction of vectors useful for obtaining the regulated expression of inserted genes, either through the use of tissue-specific transcriptional control elements or systems involving the regulation of transcription by exogenous means. Dr. Richard Mulligan, an expert in the development of mammalian vectors and packaging cell lines, will serve as the Director of the Core.
