Welcome

The Review of HMEC Culture System section was revised on 12-20-00

This bulletin board provides information on human mammary cell resources that have been developed at my laboratory at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California. These cells are available for distribution. Information is provided on the cell types available, the derivation of these cells, methods for appropriate use of the cells, and some results which have been obtained in this system. Additionally, the bulletin board is in the process of being developed to allow for interested investigators to post information on their current or prospective research, and to query others for information. A listing is provided of other researchers working on this or related human mammary systems.

As part of my ongoing research program since 1976, my laboratory has developed and stored frozen a variety of normal, benign, tumor-derived, and in vitro transformed cultures of human mammary epithelial cells (HMEC). In the interest of facilitating scientific investigations using HMEC, our laboratory makes these cells available to other researchers. The cell types available, and details about their origins and characterization, can be found in "Human Mammary Cell Types Available for Distribution" and in the sections referred to under "Review of the HMEC Culture System."

Please keep in mind the limits of what we can do:
We are not a commercial or official cell bank, and we receive only minor financial support for this service. We distribute only the human cell resources developed in our laboratory. We do not distribute tumor cell lines. I'm available for consultation about use of our HMEC resources, but not for generic mammary cell culture questions, or where to find reagents.
I've posted all this information on the Internet to relieve me of needing to answer many different researchers' technical and scientific questions. Please check this site first to see if the answers to your questions are contained within before contacting me.

If you would like to obtain HMEC from us, you are welcome to contact me for assistance in determining which cells might be the most appropriate for addressing your scientific questions. If you want cells, please contact me by email. You will be asked to send a brief (1 page) letter describing your planned experiments, and indicating that (1) you will keep me informed of results or major changes in planned experiments; (2) you will not give the cells to others without my permission. There are also legal forms from the University of California for you and your institution to sign and return. I will require a FedEx number or equivalent to charge the costs of shipping the cells. Please be sure to send a full FedEx shipping address, including telephone number. For shipments outside the US, you will need to ensure that all proper customs forms and delivery arrangements are made. I would also welcome receiving any of your papers relevant to the proposed research that you could send via the internet. I can be reached as follows:

Martha Stampfer
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
1 Cyclotron Road, Bldg. 70A1118
Berkeley CA 94720

Phone-office: 510 486-7273
Phone-lab: 510 486-4558
FAX: 510 486-4475
Email:mrstampfer@lbl.gov

Human Mammary Cell Types Available for Distribution

Review of the Human Mammary Epithelial Cell (HMEC) Culture System

Procedures

Investigator List

Legal Forms

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Additional Websites of interest for mammary gland biology:

• Biology of the Mammary Gland provided by the National Institute of Health
• University of Michigan Human Breast Cell Tissue Bank and Data Base

This web site was developed with support from the Department of Defense.