China Developed the World's First Automatic Stem Cell Induction Equipment
According to the medical website of May 18th, the National Institute of Biomedicine and Health Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences undertook the research and development of the “National Autonomous Stem Cell Induction and Culture Equipment” of the national major scientific research equipment, which has officially passed the national acceptance in Guangzhou. All technical specifications of the equipment meet the requirements. This is also the world's first fully automatic, large-scale, standardized induction and expansion stem cell induction production system.
The so-called 'stem cell' refers to a cell having self-replication function and multilineage differentiation potential, which can regenerate various types of cells, tissues or organs of a human body under specific conditions, and is called 'universal cell' by the medical community, in regenerative medicine, disease Models, drug screening, precision medicine and other fields have broad application prospects. In recent years, stem cell research has led to the development of a new field of 'induced pluripotent stem cells' (iPSCs), thus solving the problem of stem cells as a source of seed cells.
Pan Guangjin, a researcher at the Guangzhou Institute of Biology, explained that in order to obtain a large number of induced pluripotent stem cells, researchers need to prepare and allow them to multiply, that is, to raise cells. However, the current stem cell induction, cultivation, and screening processes can only be completed by manual operations. On the one hand, due to lack of real-time and quantitative monitoring of cell fate changes and induced pluripotent stem cell cloning screening and amplification, it is difficult to standardize the stem cell induction process. standard On the other hand, manual operations also have problems such as low efficiency, high cost, low throughput, and poor safety.
In this context, the Ministry of Finance supported the development of a national research and development equipment for major scientific research equipment called “Automatic Stem Cell Induced Cultivation Equipment Development”. It was established in 2013 and is under the responsibility of the Guangzhou Institute of Biology. The project team takes innovative technologies as the core and makes use of the leading international hospitals. Induced pluripotent stem cell technology, stem cell induced differentiation technology and other research results, combined with automation technology, which lasted 4 years, conquered 8 key technologies, achieved a number of innovative results, successfully developed the world's first automatic stem cell induction and cultivation equipment.
It is understood that the automatic stem cell induction culture equipment covers an area of 25 square meters, consists of an automated incubator system, an automated liquid handling system, a microscopic online observation system, a high-precision clone picking system, a culture dish delivery system, and a device control system six modules composition.
The reprogramming of stem cells starts with an individualized matrix incubator. The incubator can train 24 individualized induced pluripotent stem cells in parallel. Then, the 6-well cell culture plate is cultured from the culture in an environment of b-grade by an automatic transfer arm. The chamber is transported to the operating chamber. The culture plate is then placed into the imaging zone. Next, a microscopic imaging system with a resolution of 1.2 microns will image it. The entire process does not exceed 10 minutes.
Zhang Yan, a researcher at the Guangzhou Institute of Biology, said: 'Independent matrix incubators provide the proper temperature, humidity, and gas environment for cell culture to ensure that cells are cultured in a suitable environment, while also protecting individual cells from cross-contamination. The cell culture will not monitor the cellular status all the time. This device can be maintained at all times. It can be monitored by the mobile phone APP, and it can complete the operations of pipetting and changing liquids in time. The cell culture time is also shortened. It can also obtain cells automatically. Growth information, predicting cell growth trends, and automatically selecting mature, induced pluripotent stem cells that meet the requirements.
' This automated intelligence technology enables 24 cycles per month GMP The level of cell preparation throughput provides the country’s advanced biological manufacturing with intelligent protection of the upstream cell source. With this device, researchers engaged in the induction of pluripotent stem cells no longer rely on artificial manipulation of cells and cells, or even have no cells The technical person can get induced pluripotent stem cells just by using this instrument. 'Zhang Jian added.
It is reported that each hospital The clinical application of cell therapy urgently requires a stem cell preparation device. The automatic stem cell induction culture device has gradually been promoted in various research institutes or research centers of the first class hospital.
