Project background:

Cellular feedstocks underpin many regenerative medicine therapies, and effective in-process monitoring for large-scale manufacture would be highly beneficial for ensuring high quality products are produced consistently at an economically acceptable price. In-process characterisation of the cells, the scaffold and the combined product will lower costs by reducing operator-to-operator variability in culture processes, allowing objective characterisation and comparison of different cell lines and identifying baseline parameters for long term monitoring of cell lines. We also wrote an essay based on an interview format writing with a Harvard medical professor about Cellular feedstocks. He told very interesting research on this topic and why it is important in regenerative medicine.

Project summary:

This project has focused on the construction of a novel optical total internal reflection microscope, capable of imaging sub-micron particles and the cellular membrane, and acquiring sequential bright field and phase contrast images of different fields of view. This technology uses a label-free approach to deliver video monitoring of live cells in higher resolution than has previously been possible and will be applicable to quantitative in-process analysis, relating cell quality to treatment outcomes for stem cell therapies.

Our live cell imaging technique has attracted the interest of researchers from Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, who are investigating corneal regeneration. The live cell imaging technique will be valuable in further understanding cell well-being and allowing optimised design of cell treatment strategies

Project team:

Melissa Mather, Mike Somekh, John Crowe, Virginie Sottile, Jing Zhang, Ed Morris, Stephanie Strohbueker, Rebecca Choi, Kelly Vere (The University of Nottingham)

Collaborators: 

ReNeuron, Moorfields Eye Hospital

For further details of this project, please contact us.