10040144Reproducibility assessment of PeptiGel® products for stem cells culture and applicationsClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKStem cells are a powerful tool in biomedical research and applications, including generation of complex _in vitro_ models, disease modelling, cell therapy and drug discovery. Furthermore, stem cells can differentiate to form different types of cells, tissues and organs and can be grown to mimic diseases such as cancer and other tissue-related disorders. Within the stem cell environment, differentiation is influenced by extracellular matrix components and growth factors, which provide key instructive signals. Of particular interest are their use in generating organoids (mini organs), where clusters of stem cells come together to mimic the native microenvironment of tissues and organs. A motivation for the use of stems cells is their extraordinary potential of changing our understanding of basic biology, and the development of complex preclinical models. They also have the capacity to reduce animal usage in research and development. The growth and differentiation of stem cells in 3-dimensional (3D) have largely been demonstrated with the use of commercially available animal-derived product (3D gel). As well as ethical issues involved in its harvest, this product have significant batch-to-batch variability occurring from inter-individual species and inter-supplier variation. This animal-derived 3D gel also demonstrates thermo-responsive properties, displaying liquid properties at 4oC but forming a gel at room temperature. This significantly impacts how scientists work with it and its translational capacity in high-throughput applications, as these parameters are not compatible with essential high throughput and robotic systems. Most experiments using this product are therefore not reproducible and make data interpretation difficult. To fully understand the differentiation ability of stem cells and develop their capacity to reduce animal usage in research, it is imperative to have a non-animal derived 3D gel that shows consistent batch production, easy to handle properties for better translation in a laboratory or clinical setting. Our PeptiGel(r) products are biologically relevant, synthetic hydrogels that mimic a tissues' cellular environment through having tuneable properties to simulate the natural extracellular matrix of a native tissue. They have been shown to support the growth of a variety of cell types. However robust data of PeptiGels(r) interactions with stem cell populations is lacking. Therefore, the aim of this project is to reproducibly assess and validate PeptiGel(r) products to understand the ideal growth and differentiation environmental conditions for human mesenchymal stem cell culture. The successful completion of this project will drive forward PeptiGel(r) market penetration, further develop solutions for mesenchymal stem cell work and increase revenue.