Purpose:
The Cell Culture Lab is an essential component of a Translational Medicine platform. Within the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology of the CEMT, a Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory was designed according to the biosecurity standards for a BSL 2 level.
Inside this lab we can create cell cultures (cell lines and primary cells), primary cell isolation activities for in vitro studies (eg hepatocyte isolation from liver tissue fragments, digestive epithelial cell isolation), ectopic gene expression studies , customized cell lines can be generated using pluripotent cells induced for personalized genetic and pharmacological studies.
Laboratory design
- 3 Laboratories for molecular and cell biology experiments
- Image acquisition and image processing area
- Biological samples storage room (-80C)
- Four degree room (4C)
- Area designated to processing of waste material resulted from research activities
- Area designated to research planning and documentation
Research Activities
- isolation of human hepatocytes and digestive epithelial cells and research of new in vitro cultivation techniques aiming at functional preservation
- hepatocyte / hepatic proliferative hepatic transdifferentiation studies by ectopic expression of transcription factors
- obtaining human hepatocyte-like cells customized by cellular reprogramming techniques with potential utility in personalized pharmacology studies and regenerative medicine;
- the study of epithelial-mesenchymal transition phenomena and hepatocyte reprogramming under conditions of chronic liver injury.
- the role of ectopic expression of transcription factors as a method of regenerative gene therapy in chronic diseases and antitumor therapy
- Generation of in vitro cellular modeling models using new genomic editing techniques