Opthalmology Gene & Cell Delivery Core

Overview

The GCD core provides technical support for the production of recombinant viral vectors, and facilitate targeted delivery of genes, cells and other reagents to ocular tissues.

Leadership

Xian-Jie Yang, PhD

Opthalmology Gene & Cell Delivery Core Director

Contact

Website: Gene & Cell Delivery Core

Equipment and Facilities

Table 1. Currently Available Viral Repository in the GCD Core
Vector System	Packaging Helpers	Promoter-Transgenes
Lentiviral vectors (3rd generation, SIN vector)	pLP.VSVG pLP1 pLP2	CVM-EGFP CMV-CNTF CMV/Myo-Myo7a Ubi-rTA TetO-FUW-OSKM TetO-EGFP TeTo-Ngn2-EGFP-PuryR LentiCRISPRv2GFP
AAV vectors	pHelper pRepCap (serotype 2,5,8) pCap.Shh10 pCap.7m8	pAAV-CAG-GFP pAAV-CAG-Cre pAAV-DFAP-Cre PaaV-CMV-SaCas9;U6-sgRNA pAAV-CAG-STAT3 pAAV-Tet-RFP;Ubi-rTA

Viral Production Lab

This biosafety level 2 (BSL2) facility is equipped with biosafety cabinet, TC incubators, inverted microscope, centrifuges, and other necessary equipment for molecular biology operation, recombinant lentivirus and AAV production and concentration. The viral production laboratory will provide common cell lines, viral vectors, and packaging helpers DNAs. High titer lentiviruses and small test batch of AAVs can be produced by this laboratory with investigator-provided specific viral vectors.

Biosafety cabinet for viral production

Intraocular injection Facility

This his biosafety level 2 (BSL2) facility can house up to 112-cage special isolator cages. The same facility has a laminar flow hood outfitted with a Leica stereomicroscope with LED light source for eye injections. The facility has Shutter glass pipette puller and FemtoJet pressure-operated micromanipulator with microloader for intraocular injections for investigators with appropriate institutional approvals.