NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Plasticell has received a £750,000 ($1.2 million) grant from the UK's Technology Strategy Board (TSB), a business-led and government-supported research funder, to support a high-throughput screening project aimed at developing stem cell manufacturing protocols.
The London-based company said today that it will use the funding to lead a research consortium including the National Health Services' Blood and Transplant authority, the reagents developer Cell Guidance Systems, and biotechnology services company LGC Limited.
Plasticell will apply its CombiCult Cell Culture technology, a bead-based high throughput screening platform, toward the development of an integrated platform for rapidly identifying stem cell expansion and differentiation protocols that can be translated for clinical grade manufacturing. The company said on its website that the technology has already been used to differentiate embryonic and adult stem cells for biotech and pharmaceutical industry clients.
This project will seek to deliver an integrated platform for rapid identification of novel, optimized stem cell protocols and to develop tools for addressing the quality control issues involved in the scale-up and manufacturing processes.
Plasticell CEO Dennis Shaw said that the company now has received eight TSB awards funding research totaling over £6.2 million.