The Stem Cell Processing Core provides for collection, processing, storage, transportation, infusion, and analysis of bone marrow and blood components. Most of the activities of their core are billed to the patient. Consolidation of these activities into one service assures a high level of quality control. In addition, this core provides services that are not billed to the patient, specifically the development of new cell processing techniques, extensive analysis of cell phenotypes by flow cytometric analysis (beyond what is necessary for quality control of the marrow of blood component), and collection of cells specifically for research purposes. This core will devote one laboratory technologist to the cell processing and analysis tasks described in this section. These tasks include 1) assisting in the development and validation of T-cell depletion techniques for bone marrow or blood stem cell components, 2) assisting in the analysis of the processed components, 3) performing flow cytometric analysis of marrow and blood stem cell components collected from unrelated donors, and 4) maintaining a database for use by the principal investigators of the projects supported by this core. This core will also provide for the collection of peripheral blood cells by apheresis in support of the projects studying the use of cytotoxic and helper T-cells for adoptive immunotherapy. The centralization of the handling of human blood and marrow samples in this laboratory facilitates the application of uniform standards of procedure and quality control. Furthermore, over the grant period new marrow, peripheral blood and cord blood procedures will be developed for clinical use, all of which must be subjected to uniform control of safety standards The Apheresis Unit and Cryobiology Laboratory are best suited to provide this monitoring at the most cost-effective rate.
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