CELLULAR/MOLECULAR ANALYSES SHARED RESOURCE: CELL CULTURE FACILITY (CCF) PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Cell Culture Facility (CCF) serves as a customized pay-for-service facility with the primary goal of providing expertise, technical support, reagents, equipment, liquid nitrogen storage, and training to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of using mammalian cell for FCCC Cancer Center members. The CCF, with the direction of Kerry Campbell, PhD (BCDF) and a staff of 4.5 FTEs offers technical assistance and consultation services in tissue culture techniques, centralized liquid nitrogen banking, mycoplasma screening services, the preparation of custom and standard culture media and supplements, performance testing of fetal bovine serum, cell propagation, and technical support and supplies for mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell transfection and culture. Major efforts by the CCF include carrying out technically challenging techniques, such as the establishment of primary cell cultures from patient or animal tissue samples, hybridoma fusion and cloning services to generate monoclonal antibodies, and culturing and manipulating ES cells to generate genetically manipulated mice. Cell culture technology plays an essential role in modern cancer research, and is used in a diverse array of laboratories as evidenced by the 48 Cancer Center members who used the CCF in calendar year 2014. 95% of service hours logged for specialized cell culture services during 2014 were in support of peer-review funded research. 68 Cancer Center members from all 5 Research Programs used the CCF in the period 2011-2014. Importantly, the Facility supplies the FCCC community with valuable on-site expertise for a host of established cell culture protocols to assure quality control, expert consultation in the design and evaluation of experiments, training in cell culture methodologies, high quality culture media and supplements at reduced costs, bulk purchase pricing of high quality performance-tested fetal bovine serum, and the capacity to deliver personalized assistance and custom-prepared culture supplies in a timely and cost- effective manner. Purchasing serum in bulk via the CCF saves FCCC $81,000 per year. Campbell has directed the CCF for 15 years. Campbell's leadership prompted an institutional investment of $243,000 for new equipment and renovation/expansion of the CCF. This renovation has significantly improved physical infrastructure by localizing all operations in one central location, improving operational efficiencies for the Facility staff, purchasing new and upgraded equipment, and providing a cleaner working environment to perform tissue culture under sterile conditions. The CCF is advised by a dedicated Facility Advisory Committee (FAC) that meets annually. Recommendations from the FAC are directed to a governing Facility Parent Oversight Committee that serves to ensure that the CCF continues to have the necessary resources to provide the highest quality cell culture services for Cancer Center members. Demand for services is expected to increase in the next cycle of the CCSG due to plans to recruit in all 5 Programs, and new demand from Cancer Center members at TU. Additionally, CCF services are available to investigators at the Wistar Institute.
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