Research at Fox Chase »Research Facilities »Cell Biology

Melvin J. Bosma, PhD Director Pamela B Nakajima, PhD Staff Scientist Facility Manager Carol Afshar, BS Scientific Assistant

Reimann Building, Room R365 Room R367 215-728-2790 hybridoma@fccc.edu

Function

The Hybridoma Facility provides information about animal immunization protocols and antibody screening procedures, performs fusions of lymphocytes with any of four different drug-sensitive tumor cell fusion partners, freezes immune splenocytes for future fusions, grows primary fusants, provides culture supernatants for antibody screening assays or hybrid cells for genetic analysis, clones desired hybridomas, and isotypes monoclonal antibodies. In addition, the facility provides large volumes of cells or antibody-containing culture supernatants, purifies monoclonal antibodies, provides information about labeling antibodies and freezes representative cell samples for long-term viable storage in liquid N₂. Presently, it requires approximately 6 weeks after the cell fusion to provide clonal hybridomas to investigators. The facility also offers a computerized system to record storage of cells in the liquid N₂ freezers and provides storage lists upon request. A collection of well-characterized hybridomas with specificity for cell surface molecules and several cytokine-dependent cell lines useful for bioassays are also stored by the facility and are available to interested investigators.

High titer monoclonal antibody culture supernatants can be produced by the facility as an alternative to producing ascities in mice. A CELLMAX Bigfoot system can be used for the production of 0.5-1 gm of antibody per month. A membrane-based compartmentalized cultivation system (Integra CellLine) can be used for monoclonal antibody production of 50-200 mg.

Description

The facility includes a room for liquid N2 storage and animal dissection and a separate tissue culture room with space for incubators and media preparation. The facility's equipment consists of three liquid N2 storage freezers, a Gordinier M7009 controlled-rate freezer, a six-foot biohazard containment hood, two Leitz Diavert microscopes, one Leitz Laborlux II microscope, two Forma Scientific humidified CO₂ incubators, a CELLMAX artificial capillary cell culture system, a Hermle Labnet centrifuge (model Z 382K), 4^®C and -20^®C storage chests, a Corning water distillation system, and an Apple Macintosh Quadra 610 computer.