Infrastructure: Primary Human Hepatocyte (MHH) / Humanized Mouse (UKE) Core Facility

Located at Hannover Medical School (MHH), the Primary Human Hepatocyte (PHH) Core Facility provides research groups within the German Centre for Infection Research (DZIF) with hepatocytes freshly prepared from human liver tissue. The isolation of PHH is a standardized, technically complex procedure and PHH are only of limited availability. Along with PHH, cell populations from the non-parenchymal fractions and liver stem cells can be obtained upon request. However, hepatocyte functionality is rapidly lost in vitro and there is there is an urgent need to create a scientific infrastructure dedicated to the generation of in vivo systems enabling infection studies and long-term antiviral drug evaluation. Thus, the unit recently has merged with the Humanized Mouse Platform lead by Prof. M. Dandri at UKE to serve as a new competitive technological platform enabling in vitro and in vivo infection studies with human hepatotropic viruses and preclinical evaluation of new therapeutic concepts within the Thematical Translation Unit Hepatitis as well as to support other Thematical Translation Units within DZIF.

Team

Prof. Dr. med Florian Vondran

Kooperation

M. Dandri  (Gastroenterologie, UKE Hamburg)

Funding

BMBF