London, UK, 03 August 2011.
Plasticell, the biotechnology company specialising in high throughput technologies for directed stem cell differentiation, has announced the successful completion of a collaboration with Stemnion, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA), a US biotechnology company focused on the applications of stem cells derived from human placentas.
Plasticell used its flagship technology
CombiCult™ to discover multiple novel, serum-free protocols that direct the differentiation of Stemnion’s stem cells into hard-to-obtain lineages. The protocols were ranked using Plasticell’s Ariadne™ bioinformatics software and subsequently validated by Stemnion scientists.
“Using CombiCult™’s combinatorial technology, we identified several differentiation protocols for our cells at a fraction of the time, resources and cost compared to conventional trial-and-error methods,” said Randall Rupp, Vice-President, Manufacturing and Development, Stemnion, Inc.
“This project once again demonstrates the flexibility and the power of CombiCult™ to push the differentiation of adult stem cells into various lineages,” said Dr. Lilian Hook, Director of Research at Plasticell. “Stemnion provided us with a challenge that is typical of adult stem cell R&D programmes, however this project was particularly interesting on several fronts, including, for the first time, utilising placenta-derived stem cells as the starting cell-type.”