Mission Statement
Cell and transplantation therapy have been part of mainstream medicine for decades, but cell therapy has made only limited advances in several years. Cell therapy is currently used in transfusion medicine, bone marrow transplantation, orthopedics and in dermatology. Although clinical trials have clearly documented the potential for novel cell therapies, cell supply has been severely limiting and is the main obstacle to more wide-spread success. Islet transplants have worked for type 1 diabetes, fetal cells were successful for severe Parkinson's disease and hepatocytes have been useful for the treatment of metabolic disease. Stem cell biology promises to solve the problem of limited cell availability by finding ways to isolate cells from living donors, cadavers or immortal stem cell sources.The Oregon Stem Cell Center conducts basic and applied research in the field of Stem Cell Biology with the long term goal to harness the properties of stem cells for regenerative medicine and cell therapy.
Center Description
The Oregon Stem Cell Center was created on January 1, 2004 and is directed by Markus Grompe, M.D.. The first phase of its development (over 3 years) involves the creation of 3 core laboratories and the recruitment of 3 new faculty to OHSU. The center is housed on the top floor of the Biomedical Research Building.The Stem Cell Center Cores
The OSCC has 3 cores, a monoclonal antibody production core, a cell sorting core and a cell isolation core. Philip Streeter, Ph.D. has been recruited to be the director of these core laboratories. The main goal of the cores is to generate novel reagents for the isolation of stem cells and their differentiated offspring by generating monoclonal antibodies directed against cell surface antigens of living cells. To date, antibodies useful for cell sorting of living cells are only available for a very limited number of tissues, chiefly blood tissues. It therefore has not been possible to isolate and purify living liver stem cells, pancreas stem cells, cardiac stem cells etc. The Oregon stem cell cores are poised to embark on a systematic effort to produce novel cell surface antibodies for all tissues of the mouse, rat, primates and humans.The cell sorting core will use a state-of-the-art Cytopeia high speed InFlux instrument and is capable of sorting large and fragile cells without loss of viability. Pamela Canaday is the FACS operator. The cell isolation core will provide cell isolations services including tissue procurement and protease digestion of these tissues.