Development and testing of technology for the cryopreservation of hepatocytes in microtitre plates for subsequent screening applications.

The project will develop a consistent, highly functional and biologically robust technology for the cryopreservation of cells in microtitre plates. These cells will be used in subsequent screening applications, for example drug safety testing. Many cell types are used for screening applications, with hepatocytes being widely used to investigate drug safety and metabolism in pharmaceutical research. Microtitre plates are used for screening; these plates have either 96 wells (200 µL per well) or 384 wells (25 µL per well). However, with the exception of robust cell types, cryopreservation of cells in microtitre plates is unsatisfactory. A high quality frozen poduct would be disruptive, lowering shipping costs considerably and giving greater flexibility to end users.