Personalised iPS Cell Culture System

We plan to develop a novel, automated cell culture system specifically designed for iPSC and autologous cell culture. Early stage iPS cell culture is very labour intensive since cells must be monitored and fed daily for many weeks. For clinical applications cells must be cultured in a GMP clean room environment, with high staff and infrastructure costs. Our system will automate routine feeding, monitoring and incubation of cells in a 'closed', low cost unit, with remote monitoring and operation. It will maintain multiple plates of cells from one patient, to ensure segregation, within a small footprint, and be GMP compliant. We aim to deliver more consistent, higher quality cells, to minimise the cost, resource and 'hands on' time needed for iPSC and autologous cell culture, and to address a major barrier to wider adoption of iPSC for pre-clinical and clinical studies. The partners, TAP Biosystems, The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and University of Cambridge together have outstanding track records in developing innovative automation for cell culture and world class stem cell research, with a broad focus on developing and translating iPSC-based research into novel therapies.