A large number of investigators at the University of Massachusetts Medical School who perform diabetes-related research require cell culture and associated techniques. The Cell Science Core provides services in four major areas: 1) Operation of a supply center where investigators can order supplies at a significant discount for next day delivery. 2) Cryopreservation of tissue and cell stocks and centralized storage of cell lines including a DERC cell bank. 3) Provision of specialized immune cell culture services including a) spleen harvesting and cell fusion for the production of hybridomas and monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), b) purification of mAbs and c) production of large quantities of mAbs using CellMax cartridges. 4) Provisison of wide variety of routine cell culture services. These include cell cloning, routine maintenance and production of cell lines in monolayer and suspension culture, specialized media preparation, primary culture, mycoplasma testing, and the provision of unique diabetes-related reagents such as insulin-expressing cell lines. The Core has a documented track record of high quality service to the DERC community and recently relocated to excellent laboratory space in the school's new Biotech I building, which is close to all of the research laboratories on the Univeristy campus. Facilities include separate rooms for cell and tissue culture, cell storage, and supply center storage. The laboratories are equipped with two laminar flow hoods and nine CO2 incubators (five recently provided by the University), a programmed cell freezer, liquid nitrogen cell storage tanks, centrifuges, microscopes, and all equipment needed to prepare liquid culture media and monoclonal antibodies. In brief, the Cell Science Core enhances the productivity of diabetes researchers by providing services not available to individual laboratories, serving as a supply center, and providing advice and expertise on hybridoma and monoclonal antibody production-all at costs much lower than those that would be borne by investigators without access to the Facility.
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