Tissue Culture and Biobanking Shared Resource
Instrumentation and Services
Research support available includes:
Tissue Culture Services
| Service | Brief Description |
|---|---|
| Cell culture and cell banking | The TCBSR provides assistance with growing, expanding and banking cells. It also assists with shipping and receiving cells to and from collaborators outside LCCC. |
| Establishing primary epithelial cell cultures from normal and tumor tissues using conditional reprogramming of cells | The generation of new conditionally reprogrammed cell cultures allows indefinite propagation of adult mammalian epithelial cells. A large collection of existing cultures is available from the laboratory. |
| B-cell transformation with EBV | This service has been available at the TCBSR since 1997. The TCBSR was primarily established to facilitate studies on subjects with a genetic predisposition to cancer by providing a limitless supply of cells for genetic studies. Its success rate is greater than 98%. |
| Repository of established cell lines | The TCBSR maintains a repository of established cancer cell lines (currently 375). An investigator can obtain a frozen vial or a flask with growing cells. A list of available cell lines can be found here. |
| Cell pellets | Panels of cell pellets from the LCCC collection of established cell lines are available for screening assays to allow investigators to determine if a given cell line will be useful for their studies without having to grow the cells. |
| Quality control tests for cell lines including cell line authentication and mycoplasma testing services | The commercially available PowerPlex 16 System (Promega) is used for cell line authentication. Sixteen loci (15 short tandem repeat [STR] loci and Amelogenin for gender identification) are tested. The loci collectively provide a genetic profile with a random match probability greater than 1 in 1.83E+17. A luminescence-based mycoplasma assay (MycoAlert mycoplasma detection kit from Lonza) is used, which is capable of detecting more than 40 species. |
| Cryostorage | Sixteen liquid nitrogen freezers are available for investigators to store their reagents. The freezers are checked daily and electronically monitored 24/7 (ciSmart). |
| Tissue culture reagents | Samples of tissue culture reagents (e.g., fetal bovine serum [FBS] and charcoal stripped serum) from vendors are tested to determine the best lots. Large quantities are then purchased and made available at cost to investigators. |
| Shared tissue culture space and shared equipment (xCELLigence System, Coulter counter) | Three shared tissue culture laboratories that are equipped, maintained and monitored by the TCBSR are available to LCCC researchers. A quarantine laboratory to grow cells of unknown mycoplasma status until verified to be contamination free also is available. |
Biobanking services of blood and other biofluid specimens include:
| Service | Brief Description |
|---|---|
| Processing of specimens (e.g., preparing aliquots of serum, plasma, buffy coat, PBMC), banking, and disbursement | Processing is performed under the guidelines of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources. Aliquots are stored in -80°C freezers with emergency power backup and are monitored 24/7 by a central alarm system (CheckPoint). |
Other Services offered by the shared resource include:
- Advice and guidance on the use and applications of tissue culture techniques and experimental design
- Training in the basic principles of tissue culture with hands-on experience
- Training on the safe and proper use of instrumentation
- Support for the writing of grant proposals and scientific manuscripts
SOPs for sample preparation and service requests
Click the link below to access the TCSBR service request form:
Click the links below to download the SOPs for sample submission: