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Emory Cellular and Immunotherapy Core

The Emory Cellular and Immunotherapy Core is a clinical cell manufacturing facility that prepares cell and immunotherapy products for the development of investigational new drugs and diagnostic methods.

Cellular microscopy image (stock image)

Overview

The central mission of the Emory Cellular and Immunotherapy Core (ExCITE) is to provide Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)-compliant cell manufacturing and consultation for translating Emory-based or external research collaborations into early-phase clinical trials.

The Emory Cellular and Immunotherapy Core is a Winship developmental shared resource and is part of the Emory Integrated Core Facilities.

Our dedicated office (T4L64) is located on the same floor as our laboratory space on the fourth floor of the Emory University Hospital tower, providing computational services and space for meeting customers and holding team meetings. Additionally, we have meeting rooms available in Winship's Shared Resource Hub on the third floor of The Emory Clinic, Building B.

Services and Equipment

The types of products routinely handled include:

  • Autologous and allogeneic mesenchymal cells
  • Apheresis cell products for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) transduction
  • Labeling allogenic red blood cells (RBCS)
  • Autologous dendritic cell fusions
  • Cardiomyocyte manipulation for pediatric use
  • Cellular products from external companies

Standard processes performed include isolation, expansion, and cryopreservation of mesenchymal stem/stromal cells, dendritic cells, transduction and or transfection of lymphocytes and other cellular products for investigational new FDA-sanctioned studies.

Equipment located within our space includes:

  • Four laminar flow hoods (Nuaire)
  • Eight CO2 incubators
  • Two swinging bucket temperature-controlled centrifuges
  • A suite of Miltenyi CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) production equipment (MACSQuant, Prodigy)
  • Mycoplasma and endotoxin detection
  • An ISBT label printer and computer equipment as needed

Future plans are in place to double the lab's capacity with the addition of another two iSO7 rooms.

Publication Acknowledgement Policy

The National Cancer Institute requires that publications acknowledge the Winship Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG), and it is tracking compliance. If a Winship Cancer Institute CCSG-supported Shared Resource provided data, designed the study, performed analyses, provided results used in your publication, and/or provided any systems or services that were used for the work that resulted in your publication, please include the following statement in the acknowledgment section of your publication(s):

Research reported in this publication was supported in part by the Emory Cellular and Immunotherapy Core of Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University and NIH/NCI under award number P30CA138292. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.