Stem Cell Researchers Take It To The Next Level

Challenges and technical approaches concerning the optimization of cell growth and controlled differentiation have been discussed by several scientists like Sharon Gerecht-Nir (Institute of Technology Haifa, Israel), Thomas Noll (University Bielefeld, Germany), Wilhelm Jahnen-Dechent (University Aachen, Germany), Peter W. Zandstra (University Toronto, Canada) and Joaquim Cabral (Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal).

Sound knowledge about these processes, enables today’s cell pioneers to observe and influence new crucial parameters for higher cell numbers in the required quality. Not only institutes but also first companies such as Stem Cell Therapeutics (Calgary, Canada), which starts clinical tests with its stem cell based cell types now, are therefore challenged with new cognitions and questions:

Perfusion and Separation Increase Cell Numbers
One characteristic behavior of stem cells is their adherence to each other as well as to various surfaces. This agglomeration inhibits cell growth, as scientists found out. The question that arose is, how to increase cell numbers to the quantities required? Separating cells and keeping them in suspension could be a solution: Professor Peter W. Zandstra from the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto demonstrated that differentiating embryonic stem cells can be grown in DASGIP bioreactors, and that this growth is much more efficient when agglomeration of cells is inhibited using microencapsulation. Dr. Zandstra is now developing a method to achieve scalable quantities of human embryonic stem cell derived cells, cardiac cells and blood cells, in a controlled bioreactor system.

Oxygen Tension Influences Cell Differentiation
Systematic Modification of cultivation conditions grants deeper insight into growth and differentiation processes. Oxygen tension, for example, has a significant impact on the generation of cardiomyocytes, as Zandstra found out. Such analysis combined with cell growth under controlled conditions gives access to a new approach to optimize cell expansion and targeted differentiation. Until now few cultivation products allow to work on stem cells without harming them. But: “DASGIP Systems are characterized by high flexibility and precision concerning monitoring and control of cultivation parameters”, says Professor Thomas Noll, Director of the cell culture technology group at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. At the International Stem Cell Meeting in Muenster he pointed out: “Measurement and Control with the DASGIP system provided us with insight into processes which can tell us the determinant parameters of growth and differentiation conditions”.

Technical Tools For Stem Cell Research
Further research groups such as at the Institute for Reconstructive Neurobiology, University Bonn in Germany, benefit from DASGIP’s technology on their way to tomorrow’s medicine. Oliver Brüstle, not only Professor at the Institute, but also Managing Director of the company Life & Brain, currently is analyzing the oxygen and pH-values of his microcarrier based stem cell cultures. His project has received a public grant initiated by the Stem Cell Network North Rhine Westphalia. Professor Hans Schöler, speaker of the board of directors, appreciates the cooperation with DASGIP: ”Whenever scientists and industrial partners work together early it helps to take crucial cognitions to the next level quickly. That is of use for both sides and, in case of being from the same region such as here, even for the business location.”

DASGIPs stem cell activities are not limited by regional borders: Beside the mentioned cooperation with Toronto the company works on further projects with european partners. Since its spin-off from the University of Aachen in 1991 the cultivation specialist puts a stress on interdisciplinary and application oriented business. 40 experts, with bioprocess engineers, IT-specialists, molecular and cell biologists among them, as well as several development projects with research and industrial partners have made that idea come true during the last decade.