ABRF 2010 “Translating Basic Research with Advances in Biomolecular Technology”
March 20-23, 2010, Sacramento, CA
Pre-Meeting Tours of Core Facilities at the University of California, Davis, Sacramento Campus
2pm – 4pm Saturday March 20th
The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Leadership at UC Davis has graciously agreed to conduct tours of some of the core resources available at UC Davis and that are listed on the Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) Facilities, Cores, and Resources website (http://ctscapps.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/fcr/fcr.aspx). The tours are available for all registered attendees of the ABRF 2010 meeting and will leave promptly from the convention center at 2 pm and return approximately 4 pm in the afternoon. Tours will include three of the outstanding facilities located on the Sacramento Campus of the University of California, Davis, including: The Center for Biophotonics; The Institute for Regenerative Cures (Stem Cell Facility, GMP Facility, FACS Facility, etc.); and The Imaging Research Center. These are novel and exciting research support enterprises that should be of great interest to meeting attendees.
We extend out thanks to Dr. Lars Berglund, CTSC Director, Mark Romney, Research Facilities Planner, and all the Core Leadership at UC Davis who have worked to put this tour together for the ABRF.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TOURS
Center for Biophotonics Facilities
The NSF Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology (CBST) is located in the Oak Park Research Building, a 40,000 ft2 state-of-the-art research facility which was completed in June 2005. The nearly 10,000 ft2 Center added several new research capabilities to the University of California, Davis, and serves as a resource to other institutions in the Northern California research community. The Oak Park Research Building is the primary location for several ongoing research projects, available for use by all Center participants, and open to researchers outside the Center as a collaborative facility. The facility includes CBST’s central laboratories, administrative offices, meeting and seminar rooms, student/post-doctoral researcher offices, and student/faculty exchange. The facility also has a ~800 ft2 dedicated teaching laboratory/classroom focused on the education of K-16 students and teachers, interdisciplinary researchers, and industrial affiliates. The laser labs are configured with controlled, interlocked access and ready to be customized by optional retractable curtains. The rooms are fully equipped with the required facilities for the operation of high-power laser sources including appropriate electrical supply, low conductivity water, and laboratory gases. Furthermore, the close proximity to the other programs both within the building and nearby have led to collaborations in the focus areas of cancer, infectious diseases and healthy aging.
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The Institute for Regenerative Cures
We have established the Institute for Regenerative Cures (IRC) to ensure success for the translation of bench research into treating human diseases that might be prevented, reversed, or improved by stem cell-related therapies. Expertise in translational regenerative medicine research at UC Davis has been recognized extensively by the NIH, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), and numerous other foundations, philanthropists, and funding agencies. The University of California, Davis is home to one of only two NIH Centers of Excellence in the nation for translational human stem cell research. The IRC building will serve as a centralized location for basic, translational, and clinical regenerative cures research at UC Davis. Numerous collaborations are currently in progress throughout the Sacramento and Davis campuses, with more than 135 basic, translational, and clinical faculty affiliated with the stem cell program, which occupies 54,000 ft2 in the IRC Building. Scientists and physicians work together in disease teams to treat Neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s, ALS); Liver, kidney, lung and bladder repair and regeneration; organ bioengineering; Peripheral artery disease, stroke and heart disease; Eye degeneration/blindness; Skin disorders: Non-healing ulcers and burn repair; Bone repair, osteoporosis, and cartilage regeneration; Blood disorders, autoimmune disorders (Scleroderma, MS); HIV treatment using gene-modified stem cells; and Hearing, inner ear cilia repair. Stem cells are also studied to better understand neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorders, FXTAS, fragile X, and Tumor stem cells are studied to develop better and more targeted therapies.
Stem Cell Program Core Facilities and Resources
The Stem Cell Program provides multiple cores and services summarized below, including a retroviral and lentiviral vector core, a Flow sorting and FACS analysis core, an immune deficient mouse core, and provides scale-up services and clinical grade manufacturing of novel therapeutics in a state-of-the-art Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility core.
GMP Facility
The newly constructed UC Davis GMP facility in the IRC is the largest academic GMP facility north of Los Angeles. It is a six manufacturing room, Class 10,000, state-of-the-art, multi-use clean room facility and has an associated product scale up and testing lab. It has some unique features, such as a GMP grade FACS sorter, the ability of switchable room pressurization to achieve negative room pressurization for gene therapy vector manufacturing, and a hot cell for clinical grade PET reagent manufacturing.
Flow-Assisted Cell Sorting (FACS) Facility
FACS for the Stem Cell Program is run through the Cancer Center Optical Biology Program. The Cytopeia InFlux is a high-speed cell sorter with six lasers and 16-parameter measurement capability, and was purchased for the Stem Cell Program.
Stem Cell Program’s Vector Facility
A centralized service for the development and production of viral vectors necessary for gene transfer in research experiments and pre-clinical studies. Expert technical staff will consult with investigators to plan and develop vectors to fit individual project requirements, design and construct novel vectors and generate purified recombinant moloney murine retrovirus and lentivirus. Quality control testing will include vector titering and replication-competent retrovirus (RCR) and Lentivirus (RCL) assays. The core has been generating iPSC from patient samples for some of the groups working in the Stem Cell Program and now, with the advent of non-integrating vectors and protein-only development of these cell lines, will assist faculty with the development, isolation, and purification of vectors and recombinant technology to generate the new cell lines.
Immune Deficient Mouse Core for Teratoma Testing to Validate Pluripotentiality
The core performs procedures on NOD/SCID, NOD/SCID/B2M null, and NOD/SCID/ IL2Rg (gamma chain)-/- mice for faculty investigators on a fee-for-service basis. Induced pluripotent stem cell lines generated for investigators will be tested there for pluripotentiality (teratoma formation), a hallmark of the induction process.
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The Imaging Research Center
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