hESC Core Facility

The purpose of the hESC Core Facility is to provide an institutional resource for human embryonic stem cell research at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Given the limitations imposed by current federal regulations, MGH investigators are required to undertake complex measures to ensure compliance when working with human embryonic stem cell lines, particularly those not listed in the NIH registry. The Core Facility aids investigators in the sometimes daunting process of beginning hESC research, by ensuring compliance with policies, offering guidelines, and acting as a liaison with the ESCRO Committee. Since, the hESC Core Facility is exclusively supported with non-federal fundings, it serves as a haven where work on all human embryonic stem cell lines can take place.

The primary mission of the hESC Core Facility is to readily provide scientists from MGH and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute with the critical services to efficiently and successfully conduct human embryonic stem cell research. These services include:

1. Individual training and guidance in hESC culture, maintenance, transduction, differentiation and characterization.

2. Maintenance and availability of hESC lines (both federally and non-federally approved lines) with appropriate quality control.

3. Development of new protocols and tools to better facilitate the use of human embryonic stem cells.

4. Availability of a state-of-the-art cell culture room specifically designed for hESC research.

5. Providing an asylum for investigators interested in working with cell lines not listed in the NIH registry.

6. Providing a forum to discuss the bioethical issues surrounding this research in the form of a bi-monthly bioethics roundtable.

Dr. Laurence Daheron is Director of the Human Embryonic Stem Cell Core Facility at MGH. She encourages scientists at MGH and HSCI who are interested in hESC research to contact her at ldaheron@partners.org.

It is our hope that the availability of the Core Facility will promote further study of human embryonic stem cells and will help scientists achieve their scientific and medical goals.

The facility includes a modern cell culture room with four biological safety cell culture hoods (one exclusively used for virus preparation), six incubators (two of which are equipped to modulate the oxygen level), an inverted microscope and a stereoscopic zoom microscope.

The hESC lines used include: H1, H9 and HUES 1-17.

hESC Core Facility charges