Core--Murine tracheal transplant facility

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Daniel Mueller will direct the transplantation core. He will be responsible for the training and supervision of the Junior Scientist (to be named) on the project. He will assure the quality of the core?s surgical expertise, and will also manage the financial aspects of the core. This Junior Scientist, to be hired, will have significant expertise in animal husbandry and small animal surgery, and will have a background in a biological discipline such as physiology or immunology. This individual will be trained by the Core leader and his associates to harvest mouse tracheas for implantation under anesthesia, to transplant the tissue under anesthesia (survival surgery), to monitor the transplanted animals during the recovery period following the transplantation, and to sacrifice the animals at the end of the experiment. He/she will then be responsible for the recovery of tracheal graft tissues as well as relevant lymphoid organs (lymph node, spleen) at the end of the experiment, and processing of the tissue per the request of the investigator. This will entail the freezing of tissue blocks in OCT medium and frozen sectioning, as well as the preparation of cellular suspensions from collagenase-treated tracheal tissue. This individual will make his or her expertise available to all scientists on this program project on a pre-arranged schedule, and free of charge. This investigator will also be responsible for purchasing of the relevant expendable supplies and for the maintenance of the small equipment (e.g., tissue forceps) and the cryostat.