The Cancer Center Isolation Facility (CCIF) is a 30,000 square foot, stand-alone building located in the heart of the Duke biomedical campus and dedicated to cancer research. Its physical plant supports work with hazardous materials at biosafety level 2 or 3, recombinant DNA, chemotherapeutics, as well as the maintenance of immunosuppressed and specific pathogen free rodents. Immunocompromised mice (outbred athymic nude mice and inbred Nod SCID gamma (NSG) mice) are bred within CCIF and are available to all investigators at Duke who have an approved IACUC animal protocol. The CCIF also maintains numerous xenograft lines derived from both pediatric and adult primary and metastatic tumors, including various brain tumors, sarcomas, melanomas, and breast cancers. CCIF personnel advise or suggest mentors to DCI investigators who require assistance with breeding services, veterinary or diagnostic services, animal and experimental protocol development, inoculation or testing of cell lines, preferable location of such inoculations, and a large variety of other information pertinent to performing safe and efficient research in the investigation of cancer biology. The 33 current users of CCIF are all DCI members and the CCIF contributed to 334 DCI publications during the funding period. Users represented eight of the nine CCSG-recognized Research Programs: Neuro-Oncology, Cancer Genetics and Genomics, Developmental Therapeutics, Hematologic Malignancies and Cellular Therapies, Tumor Biology, Women's Cancer, Radiation Oncology and Imaging, and Solid Tumor Therapeutics. CCIF also supports the CCSG-supported Optical Molecular Imaging and Analysis Shared Resource. CCIF contains facilities for the conduct of efficacy and toxicity studies that meet Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) regulations as required by the Food and Drug Administration to obtain Investigational New Drug permits. In the past 5 years, upgrades to equipment in the CCIF have occurred through significant investments by the Duke School of Medicine. The immediate and long-term objectives of the CCIF Shared Resource are to continue to provide high-quality barrier facility services, improve and upgrade services when possible, and to provide key expertise and services, including low-cost, high quality animals, to DCI members studying cancer biology and developing new agents for treating or diagnosing human cancers.
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