STEM Core Project Summary The Skin Tissue Engineering and Morphology (STEM) Core of the Northwestern University Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-based Center (NU-SBDRC) is committed to providing access and expertise to human skin tissue and primary skin cells, 3D skin models, and histological services to accomplish our long-term goal of stimulating new skin biology research and to propel ongoing discoveries towards translation. To achieve our goal of driving cutaneous research, we will accomplish four specific aims. Our first aim is to expand our biobank through deposit of primary human skin cells, archival tissues, and skin-related databases in partnership with the TEST IT2 Core. We are particularly focused on diversifying our biobank with respect to self-identified race or ethnicity, sex, age, and disease state. Our second aim is to provide services for establishing and evaluating human and mouse skin culture models. 3D skin culture models are powerful tools for understanding physiologic and disease states of skin as these models recapitulate skin morphogenesis and differentiation. The STEM Core provides services, materials and reagents to investigators who want to use these models in their research program. Moreover, our service pipeline encompasses histological techniques, instruments, and tools to analyze 3D skin culture models to assess their morphology, extent of differentiation, barrier function, and mechanical integrity. A major focus of the STEM Core is to encourage and facilitate new basic and translational cutaneous research. To achieve this goal, our third aim, we will partner with multidisciplinary investigators to establish innovative engineered skin culture models for drug discovery and device development. We will generate more complex skin models with a variety of cell types, especially immune cells to generate models of inflammatory disease. We will partner with the GET iN Core to develop inducible promoter systems to tune the spatiotemporal expression or knockdown of proteins relevant to skin biology. We will also continue to pioneer methods to probe mechanical properties and advance imaging capabilities for skin and 3D skin models. Finally, our fourth aim is to engage our communities in training, education, and mentorship centered on skin and skin research. Paramount to achieving this, we provide in-depth training and continued support in primary skin cell isolation and 3D skin model establishment to all interested investigators. Our protocols are freely shared as we want the application of 3D skin models to become an accessible tool for investigators to use in their own laboratories. Altogether, the objective of the STEM Core is to accelerate investigative dermatology by providing resources, tools, expertise, and training to advance our understanding of skin and skin diseases to ultimately impact patient care.