University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI)

Overview

The mission of UPCI Lentiviral Facility (LF) is to provide lentivirus for expression of shRNA and cDNA to aid in studies of gene-discovery, drug development, and target validation. The LF will provide expertise and reagents to UPCI and the University of Pittsburgh for basic science research. The currently available techniques and reagents include high- and low-titer HIV and FIV lentivirus preparation, preparation of stock viruses for Fluorescent protein expression and shRNA expression from a library specific to human and mouse genes, design and development of lentiviruses for cDNA expression for cell-based studies and transgenic mouse production, cell transduction and characterization (development of stable cell lines and analysis by qRT-PCR), and lentiviral titering and testing for replication competence.