PluriCellsTM & Derivatives
Productive preclinical and clinical application of human embryonic stem cell lines (ES) is hampered by cumbersome and complex culture methods. This includes the necessary use of feeder layers. SCI has been able to overcome these hurdles by establishing PluriCelltm lines using semi-defined conditions. These cells grow directly on tissue culture plastic in a specified medium without the use of feeder layers. They are readily cloned, exhibit good transfection efficiencies using nucleofection and adenoviral infection and are being used for high-throughput screening approaches.
SCI has initiated a number of research programs including a motor-neuron project for motor-neuron disease applications, a cardiomyocyte and hepatocyte toxicity program, and a program for the generation of sensory neurons + inner hair cells for hearing loss research. These are areas within the industry in need of high quality human cell models. The goal is to build a collection of PluriCell derived high quality tissues that are currently not available for industrial drug discovery research. An example of a differentiated cell type generated from SCI PluriCells is given below.
Smooth muscle cell positively stained for alpha-actinin.
