NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine and Nikon has reached a deal aimed at high-throughput studies of how stem cells respond to test molecules.
Under the terms of the deal announced today, Nikon will place its BioStation CT Integrated Cell Culture Observation System and associated software in CCRM's facility. Together, CCRM and Nikon will develop algorithms for the capture of cellular and molecular events as they happen. The hope is that crucial data will be generated, resulting in the advancement of personalized regenerative medicine.
Peter Zandstra, CSO of Toronto-based CCRM and a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto, said that the studies to be conducted as part of the collaboration are "well aligned" with ongoing efforts by him and his colleagues to standardize metrics for stem cell responses.
The Nikon platform allows scientists to conduct their imaging research without removing the cells from the incubator, the company said on its website.
"The equipment will enable us to image plated cells and perform analyses regularly over a 24-hour period, thereby allowing CCRM scientists to recognize when crucial changes are happening to the cells, in real time," he noted. "This is particularly significant when testing how cells react to drugs or genes."
Hosted by the University of Toronto, CCRM is funded by the Government of Canada's Centres of Excellence program and six academic partners. It supports development of technologies for the acceleration of stem cell- and biomaterials-based technologies and therapies.