PluriCore - Pluripotent Stem Cell Core Network

Organization of the 5th Annual PluriCore Meeting/Berlin

We are happy to announce the 5th Annual PluriCore Meeting on 7 - 8 November in Berlin. It will provide the platform to discuss newest developments in the technologies on stem cell reprograming, differentiation, storage among other within the expert group of Core Unit specialists. 

 Program

Please register  here

If you would like to get involved and maybe even present some of your results, please get in contact with Sebastian Diecke (Sebastian.Diecke@mdc-berlin.de), Harald Stachelscheid (harald.stachelscheid@charite.de) or Claudia Schaar (claudia.schaar@charite.de).

GSCN reference standard wording informed consent

The GSCN in collaboration with the PluriCore Network and the  ELSA GSCN working group has established a standard wording document in German used as reference for informed patient consent. This document provided the text blocks to be used for the donation of somatic cells intended for reprogramming of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. A translation back to English is provided for the international use of cell lines.
Standard wording document:  Download Mustertext here (DE, .docx).
Translation of the wording document to English (for international use):  Download English Mustertext here (EN, .docx). 

4th meeting of  PluriCore in Berlin

The fourth annual meeting of the Pluripotent Stem Cell Core Facility Network (PluriCore) took place in Berlin from 15 – 16 November 2018.
During the meeting, 46 participants discussed various topics focusing on gene editing, genomic stability and automation with respect to pluripotent stem cells. The event was enriched by contributions of invited guest speakers who are experts on these topics.
As a future action, the development of a common Open Access iPSC line repository with highly characterized lines from healthy donors has been agreed, which will serve as reference lines for various research projects.

For question please contact the coordinators of PluriCore Sebastian Diecke, Harald Stachelscheid and Micha Drukker.

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3rd meeting of  PluriCore in Jena

The PluriCore Partners met for a third national meeting in Jena alongside the GSCN Annual meeting on 10 Sept. in Jena.  They were looking forward to interesting scientific exchange, new technologies and methods as well as meeting colleagues. The meeting is supported by the GSCN and the Berlin Institute of Health.

For question please contact the coordinators of PluriCore Sebastian Diecke, Harald Stachelscheid and Micha Drukker.

2nd meeting of the German Stem Cell Core Units - PluriCore

After a very successful first meeting in July 2015, the Stem Cell Core Units of the PluriCore network will meet for their second meeting on 19 - 20 May 2016 in Berlin. We are looking forward to interesting scientific exchange, new technologies and methods as well as meeting colleagues. The meeting is supported by the GSCN and the Berlin Institute of Health.

The final program can be found here.

For question please contact the coordinators of PluriCore.

Network of German Pluripotent Stem Cell Cores established

Coordinators:Sebastian Diecke (Berlin),Micha Drukker (Munich) andHarald Stachelscheid (Berlin)

On 30 - 31 July 2015, scientists from labs throughout Germany that provide services in the field of PSC research (core facilities) met at the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH)  to establish a network to promote scientific and technical exchange as well as collaboration. A high degree of standardization and harmonization is required when working with pluripotent stem cells (PSC), especially when the work is directed towards clinical translation. This has motivated scientists to exchange the techniques and protocols they have developed. The "Stem Cell Cores," facilities at the different institutes, will establish common standards for experiments and exchange knowledge and materials. This will include expertise regarding techniques to reprogram stem cells, stimulate their differentiation, engineer genomes, and characterize cells, and scientists will exchange useful vectors and cell lines.

The main goal of this first meeting was to bring the Stem Cell Core community together and address topics such as the standardization of quality control and methods to confirm the pluripotent state of hiPSCs. Different working groups within the initiative were assigned topics including culture conditions, the characterization of pluripotency, differentiation-potency, quality control, data management and ethics. The groups will elaborate and recommend standards that will facilitate scientific exchange between groups working at different institutes. Another plan is to establish annual workshops of the Core facilities, and organize satellite meetings at the GSCN International Annual Conferences.

The initiative was launched by Micha Drukker (Helmholtz Center Munich), Harald Stachelscheid (BIH Stem Cell Core, BCRT) and Sebastian Diecke (BIH Stem Cell Core, MDC) and supported by the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and the German Stem Cell Network (GSCN).

BIH News 29.8.2015:  Network of German Pluripotent Cores established