August 2, 2022; Seattle Washington: Blood Cell Storage Inc (BCSI), a medical device company whose products help assure the quality of platelet transfusions and help optimize the environment for embryo growth during in vitro fertilization procedures, today announce a grant award from the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (armiusa.org) to create An Automated Cell Differentiation Monitoring System for use in Tissue Engineered Medical Product (TEMP) Manufacturing.
BCSI has partnered on the project with Seattle-based Pluristyx, Inc. Pluristyx (www.pluristyx.com), with whom BCSI has collaborated in the past, was established in 2018 as an advanced therapy tools company to help companies and researchers solve manufacturing challenges in the field of drug development, regenerative medicine, and cell and gene therapy.
TEMP manufacturing requires advances in Measurement Technologies that can monitor cell identity in tissues thereby ensuring that cells differentiate to the desired types. This project will address this Measurement Technology need through RNA monitoring of used media in a rapid and automated manner. BCSI will utilize patented technology from an existing company product line called SNAP or “Simple Nucleic Acid Processing.” The time from sample through RNA extraction, amplification and quantification is expected to be under an hour at a modest cost relative to the value of the cells. As a fully automated product, it is anticipated that the TEMP manufacturing process, which can take several weeks, could easily be monitored hourly or several times a day.
BCSI business Director, Steve Geelhood, commented, “the notion of being able to monitor the differentiation of stem cells while they are being cultured without sampling the cellular products is very exciting and meets a huge need in the field.”
Pluristyx’s Chief Technology Officer, Brian Hawkins, PhD added, “We are excited to partner with BCSI on this ARMI project. The lack of real time data tracking stem cell differentiation is a limitation in our current work, and the opportunity to collaborate with the BCSI team to develop a rapid feedback to optimize our stem cell culturing workflows allows us to accelerate the next generation of cell therapies.”
ABOUT BCSI: Blood Cell Storage Inc. (BCSI), based in Seattle, Washington, is an international laboratory instrument and medical devices company. BCSI’s patented technology and products benefit patients, clinicians, researchers, pathologists and doctors. In addition to our pH monitoring system for IVF culture media, the company’s fluorescent dyes, micro-fluidics, nucleic acid extraction capabilities and automated systems reduce healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes. For more information, contact Matt Holmes at matt.holmes@safesens.com or visit www.safesens.com.
ABOUT Pluristyx: Pluristyx is a privately held biotechnology company offering consulting, wet-lab and GMP banking services, and pluripotent stem cell products to support novel therapeutic developers. Pluristyx helps industry and academic researchers solve manufacturing and analytical challenges in cryopreservation, drug development, regenerative medicine, and cell and gene therapy. The Pluristyx team has decades of experience supporting every stage of cell therapy product development, from cell banking to drug product manufacturing including analytical testing and release of clinical grade cell therapy products. For more information about Pluristyx, visit www.pluristyx.com or email info@pluristyx.com.