KTH researchers make progress in cell cultivation
Researchers at KTH and the company Cellcolabs have successfully cultured a special type of stem cells in a bioreactor at KTH. These cells inhibit inflammation and restore balance between the immune system and connective tissue. There are very few places in the world where this type of cultivation has previously been successful.
“It feels great after years of hard work! It is also fun to show the benefits of collaboration between industry and academia,” says Johanna Pechan, a PhD student in Véronique Chotteau's group at the Department of Industrial Biotechnology at KTH.
Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are a type of stem cell that has received considerable attention due to their ability to influence both the immune system and tissue damage. MSCs interact with the body's immune system to reduce inflammation and stimulate healing processes.
“The properties of MSCs make them a promising candidate for both prevention and treatment of everything from major common diseases to acute injuries. Today, hundreds of clinical studies are underway globally investigating the potential of MSCs to treat everything from Alzheimer's and diabetes to cardiovascular diseases,” Johanna Pechan says.
Difficult-to-grow stem cells
Together with Kristina Engström from Cellcolabs, Pechan has been working on growing MSCs more efficiently at the AdBIOPRO research centre at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Stem cells are difficult to grow and in the usual production process of MSCs they are grown in so-called cell factories, which require a large production area. The process is manual, time-consuming and costly. Something of a stumbling block for the pharmaceutical industry and for researchers.
Instead of growing the cells in cell factories, Johanna Pechan and Kristina Engström have grown MSCs on microcarriers that can be placed in bioreactors. Microcarriers are micrometer-sized beads with a lot of surface area on which the cells can grow, but in a smaller volume.
“This means that we can fit more cells in a smaller production area and grow them in bioreactors, enabling process control that was previously lacking. It has been a development process of about two years, where the latest step is confirmation of large volume cultivation. With our process, we have been able to grow the equivalent of 20-30 cell factories in a single bioreactor,” Johanna Pechan says.
Working towards larger volumes
Further developing the production process and moving away from a well-developed but manual process is one of the keys to continuing the research and getting more treatments approved.
“Now we will continue to work towards even greater volume, and expand our understanding of process parameters for better control, so that we can eventually apply the process in the right environment for drug production at Cellcolabs, which makes this type of cell therapy available to patients,” Johanna Pechan says.
Text: Jon Lindhe ( jlindhe@kth.se )