This core facility allows for the functional assessment of therapeutics involving epithelial ionic transport. Patient cells available in the core allow for the screening of targeted, personalized therapeutics in a high throughput in-vitro electrophysiological assay that has been widely considered as the Gold Standard for preclinical drug development for cystic fibrosis (CF).

Patient-derived cell models are an essential tool for pre-clinical drug development and personalized medicine. In-vitro electrophysiological functional assays using epithelial cells are valuable tools to study defects in human diseases such as CF. The in vitro use of human bronchial epithelial (hBE) cells isolated from CF-patients has often been considered the Gold Standard Assay to evaluate the efficacy of potential therapies to restore anion secretion in CF.

2-Plate BREATHE-Z TECC-24 System	5-Plate MTECC-24 Assay with Impedance Spectra Analysis

Equipment

• 2-Plate BREATHE-Z TECC-24 System: allows for transepithelial resistance (Rt) and potential difference (PD) measurements from two 24-well Transwell filter plates (48 separate membranes). The TECC is surrounded by a chamber that allows for analysis with or without CO2.
• 5-Plate MTECC-24 with Impedance Spectra Analysis: allows Rt and PD measurements from five 24-well Transwell filter plates (120 separate membranes). In addition, impedance spectra analysis allows for more thorough investigation of epithelial barrier functions.

Model Systems

• Biobank: housing a number of patient-derived primary airway cells and cell lines (CFBE cell lines, FRT cells, etc), as well as a cDNA library consisting of over 600 CFTR variants.
• Cell culture resources: including custom media to support primary airway cell growth and differentiation.

Fee Structure

Resource	Price
Cells: Patient-derived airway cell lines	*Subject to availability
Media: Airway cell differentiation media 3T3 cell-conditioned media	$670/500ml $980/250ml
Functional Testing	Price
cDNA variant testing	*Subject to experimental design
Patient-derived primary airway cells	$2,500/24-well plate
Human bronchial epithelial cells (16hBE)	$2,300/24-well plate
Fischer rat thyroid cells (FRT)	$2,100/24-well plate

*pricing approximate, depending on experimental design and resource availability and includes data
 analysis and consulting costs

For more information contact: Jessica.Centa@rosalindfranklin.edu