The Vector Core was established in January 1991 by start-up funds provided by the Pittsburgh Transplant Institute, the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and the Pittsburgh Genetics Institute. The core was designed to function both as a service facility as well as a research and development facility.

It was established as part of the gene therapy initiative at the University of Pittsburgh. In this capacity, the core has generated viral vectors and provide reagents to projects working on treatment of gene therapy for cancer, Gaucher disease, gene therapy for arthritis, gene transfer to facilitate islet transplantation, gene transfer to myoblasts, in utero gene transfer and gene transfer to hepatocytes and endotelial cells.

The Vector Core has also provided viruses expressing both marker and therapeutic genes to investigators to infect tumor cells, neuronal cells, hepatocytes, islets, synoviocytes, T-cells, NK cells, dendritic cells, and fibroblasts. The core has served as a hub for a number of gene therapy projects for the past nine years and thus is a fully functional core facility.

The core is working with thee types of viral delivery systems, retrovirus, adenovirus and adeno-assoicated virus for transfer of therapeutic genes as well as to develop expression systems for delivery in liposomes and/or particulates.

The core also interacts closely with the Human Gene Therapy Applications Laboratory to develop, test, and provide viral supernatants for clinical applications. Furthermore, the core serves as a training facility for individuals who are interested in utilizing viral systems in their gene therapy experiments.

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