luishinton: Researchers discover unique suspension technique for large-scale stem cell production

Researchers discover unique suspension technique for large-scale stem cell production

Public release date: 5-Apr-2012
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Contact: Erin Vollick
com.ibbme@utoronto.ca
416-946-8019
University of Toronto

Post-doctoral researcher David Fluri and Professor Peter Zandstra at the University of Toronto's Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) have developed a unique new technique for growing stem cells that may make possible cost-effective, large-scale stem cell manufacturing and research.

Although stem cells are widely used for the testing of new drugs, researchers have always faced difficulties manufacturing enough viable cells from a culture. Typically, stem cells are grown on surfaces that must be scraped, and which must then be differentiated from other types of cells to prevent the death of those all-important cells. This has proven to be an inefficient way to harvest stem cells, since the process doesn't produce stem cells in high enough numbers that they can be cost-effectively used by researchers.
Wanting to overcome this challenge, Fluri decided to pair the stem cell creation process, known as reprogramming, with the use of a bioreactoran apparatus that creates stable environmental conditions. Through this process Fluri was able to "reprogram" mouse cells to become "pluripotent" stem cellscells that can become any kind of celland then into cardiac cells.

But it was the way these cells were successfully grown that has researchers excited.

By introducing the cultures to this particular bioreactor process, the stem cells were grown in suspension, eliminating the problems inherent in growing the cells on surfacessomething that has never before been accomplished. "This is an enabling technology," says Prof. Zandstra of the discovery. "[It] takes something we showed we could do before at low efficiency but not at such numbers that could be used in manufacturing."

Fluri hopes his discovery, which is "more compatible with large scale processes" will help ease the "bottleneck of cell production" used for research and drug development. The results of his research have just been released in the high profile scientific research journal, Nature Methods.

Yet there are greater implications involved in Fluri's discovery: once stem cells are produced, they are "differentiated" to become other kinds of cellscardiac cells, for instanceand Fluri's new growing process has the potential to make this phase of cell production safer and more stable.

Fluri specifically experimented with the integrated differentiation of stem cells into cardiac cells, which could then be used for drug screening and identifying new drugs for cardiac diseases. But created in large enough numbersand translated to human modelsthe process may one day be used to treat heart disease.

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ABOUT IBBME
The Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) is an interdisciplinary unit situated between three Faculties at the University of Toronto: Applied Science and Engineering, Dentistry and Medicine. The Institute pursues research in four areas: neural, sensory systems and rehabilitation engineering; biomaterials, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine; molecular imaging and biomedical nanotechnology; medical devices and clinical technologies.

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Researchers discover unique suspension technique for large-scale stem cell production Public release date: 5-Apr-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Erin Vollick
com.ibbme@utoronto.ca
416-946-8019
University of Toronto