Cell Separation and Culture (CSC) Core

The Cell Separation and Culture Core provides vital services to Center members. 
First, it provides services that are frequently utilized by numerous funded investigators, thereby allowing sharing of resources and cost reduction. Second, it fosters an environment for collaboration and growth of investigators. Third, it provides a mechanism for development of new techniques that will benefit the investigators.

Goals of the CSC Core are to:

1. Provide high quality, consistent services needed by a large number of independently funded investigators to improve research efficiency by sharing resources and lowering costs.
2. Foster an environment for interdisciplinary collaboration and growth.
3. Train investigators at USC and elsewhere in techniques for cell isolation and separation.
4. Develop new services that the funded investigators and junior faculty will likely use in the future.

Director: Takeshi Saito, M.D., Ph.D.
As the new Director of this core, Dr. Saito supervises the work of the Core and oversees the utilization of the Core and the development of new services. He will be responsible for quality control of isolated cells, and cell line repository.

Co-Director: Lucy Golden-Mason, Ph.D.
Dr. Golden-Mason has extensive experience in translational science and of a broad array of cell separation and culture techniques. She will provide support to members in the form of experimental design and data analysis. She also manages the expansion of the Core in NRT 4514 with a new BSL2 BioSafety Cabinet, BD FACSAria Fusion Flow Cytometer/Sorter, and 10X Chromium Controller for single-cell RNA sequencing.

Core Research Associate: Lina He, M.D.
Dr. He provides the 20 years of experience in tissue culture and provides the services of this core.

Facilities and Resources

Location: HMR 803

Services:

Cell Culture component of the Core:
The Cell Culture component of the Core provides fee for services.

Existing Services:
Provides isolation and culturing of rat and mouse hepatocytes from normal and diseased livers, and cell line banking. Provides training to investigators at USC or outside of USC that are NIH-funded.

Cell Separation component of the Core:
The Cell Separation component of the Core provides assistance to Center members in the use of Core’s following equipment to isolate cell subtypes and analyze their function. There is currently no fee to use these instruments and Dr. Golden-Mason is in charge of training users and providing assistance when needed.

• BD FACSVerse Flow Cytometer (HMR-803)
• Miltenyi Biotec AutoMACS Pro Separator (HMR-803)
• VWR Symphony CO2 Incubator for Core Cell Cultures (HMR-804)
• Sanyo IncuSafe MCO-18A1C CO2 Incubator for RCLD members’ shared use (HMR-804)
• Two VWR 35VHC Liquid Nitrogen Storage Tanks (HMR-804)
• Nikon Diaphot microscope (804)
• LabConco Model 3440809 BioSafety Cabinet (HMR-804B)
• Chromium Controller for single-cell RNA sequencing (NRT-4514)
• MidiMACS™ Separator (NRT-4514)
• OctoMACS™ Separator (for 8 columns) (NRT-4514)
• Motic light microscope with hemocytometer (NRT-4514)
• Nikon Alphaphot YS Microscope (NRT-4514)
• Countess II Automated Cell Counter (NRT-4514)
• Two Forma Series II CO2 Incubators (NRT-4514)
• Fisher Scientific Vortex Mixer (NRT-4514)
• Forma Class II, A2 BioSafety Cabinet to accommodate the BD FACSAria™ Fusion flow cytometer/sorter for the BSL2 operations (NRT-4514D)
• BD FACSAria™ Fusion flow cytometer/sorter (NRT-4514D)
• Beckman Coulter Allegra X-15R Centrifuge (NRT-4514E)

Costs:
There are charges for most of the services provided by the Culture component of the Core (see Table 1) to cover the cost of animals and basic supplies. For Center members the fee includes reimbursement of supplies and animal cost. For non-Center members, the fee also includes labor. When a cell preparation is shared by multiple investigators, the cost to the investigator is adjusted accordingly. Currently, there is no charge for use of the Cell Separation equipment. However, this may change depending on future budgetary constraints, so that a chargeback system may be necessary to partially cover service contracts of equipment.

Table 1. Summary of Charges*

**Please acknowledge the Liver Center in your abstracts and publications

• Citation of the Liver Center as a professional affiliation
• Acknowledgement of specific Liver Center support where appropriate (core use, pilot funding)
• Link all liver-related publications to DK048522 in PMCID