lentiCore

The UCSF Diabetes/Sandler Center Lentiviral Core provides essential equipment, training, supervision, and monitoring of investigators wishing to ensure the proper compliance with biosafety containment required for lentiviral-based research. It also provides several services (outlined below) for investigators located within the Sandler Center, Diabetes Center, and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Currently, these services are free. If you are outside of these centers, and wish to use these services or engage in collaborative arrangements, please contact the Core Director Michael T. McManus (mmcmanus@diabetes.ucsf.edu).

It is the objective of the Core to facilitate research studies of investigators by fostering a multidisciplinary interaction between UCSF investigators. The Core will provide a limited set of lentiviral vectors and maps, and it is anticipated that the on-site shRNA library will expand as more users donate their vectors for use within the UCSF community. All donated vectors should be sequence validated and their % efficacy at mitigating RNAi should be recorded.

Because of the importance of maintaining a safe working environment for investigators, the Core facility is staffed with trained personnel who instruct and oversee the daily operations and use of the Core and its equipment. New investigators planning to utilize any of the Core's facilities are required to undergo training. In addition, investigators wishing to store or obtain reagents from the Core facility may do so.

Currently we provide the following services:

-viral packaging

-VSVG pseudotyped virus concentration

-viral titering

To request these services, please download the request form and fill out completely. Incomplete forms will not be processed.

1. Fill out the Viral request Form using the link above. Prepare 5-100 micrograms of transfection-quality DNA using an endo-free procedure (the amount depends on how much virus you need). We routinely use Qiagen's endo-free maxi-prep for standard preps.

2. The link above leads to an online form that should send the form for you; use the following email address (viracore@ucsf.edu) only as a backup. Bring a printed copy of this form with your DNA to Room 1002. No Lentivirus will be made if the forms are not completed and submitted.

3. Viruses that contain oncogenes or shRNAs that target tumor suppressors will not be packaged.

4. We encourage investigators to make available their shRNA vector sequences to others at UCSF. In the future we will make available a list of vectors within our libraries, which will be freely available for use within Sandler Center, Diabetes Center, and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

5. If viruses are used in the generation of a publication, please acknowledge the UCSF Diabetes/Sandler Center Lentiviral Core.

6. We appreciate feedback. This is the main way we can improve upon our services. Please email feedback to viracore@ucsf.edu.