Many stem cell projects expand to a point where standard culture methods—plates, dishes, flasks, etc.—no longer yield sufficient cells to meet the growing needs for differentiation and regenerative medicine. At this point, larger scale options are required. Traditional bioreactors provide large volume cell culture of liters to hundreds of liters, but they are expensive to buy and expensive to operate. New small scale bioreactors fill the niche between these two extremes perfectly, providing increased cell production over plates or dishes, while being cost-effective to buy and operate.

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Regenerative medicine promises a healthier workforce and increased quality of life. However, the introduction of regenerative therapies will require careful regulatory and technical considerations from both researchers and clinicians. In this blog post, we describe four informative TED Talks that explore the future of regenerative medicine and the limitations preventing its introduction.

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Planning an immunocytochemistry (ICC) project can be tricky as it requires careful selection of compatible antibodies, fluorochromes, and blocking reagents. In this article our scientists have provided a step-by-step guide for single staining of iPSCs, plus trouble-shooting tips to optimize your results. 

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In celebration of our distributorship with NeuCyte, REPROCELL catches up with NeuCyte’s Head of Neuroscience, Dr Daniel Haag, to discuss the benefits of SynFire technology. Read on to find out the science behind this technology, and how using human neural models can benefit your drug discovery and toxicology research.

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What is Spinocerebellar Ataxia?

Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are a group of inherited, genetically heterogeneous disorders which are characterised by ocular motor abnormalities, cognitive dysfunction, peripheral neuropathy and progressive cerebellar ataxia. In general, the prevalence of SCA is between 2-7/100,000 individuals with more than 30 subtypes being identified, each caused by a mutation of a different gene.

PolyQ SCAs including SCA1, SCA2, SCA3, SCA6, SCA7 and SCA17 are caused by an extensive CAG sequence repeat which encodes for expanded polyglutamine residues within the ATXN3 gene. The only currently approved treatment option for patients suffering with this debilitating, progressive disease is Ceredist, however this only provides palliative treatment in reducing or relieving frequency and severity of symptoms. Stem cell therapy is offering hope, with evidence of potential efficacy being demonstrated in a phase I/II clinical trial using stem cells isolated and cultured from human adipose tissue.

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Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have the potential to revolutionize the fields of drug discovery, disease modelling, personalized medicine and regenerative medicine ^[1]. iPSCs have the capacity for continuous self-renewal and differentiation into several different cell types. At the same time, they also do not face many of the ethical challenges faced by human embryonic stem cells ^[2].

In order to fully realize the potential of iPSCs for many of the above applications, there is a requirement to generate a vast number of cells; hence, an effective method of mass culture of iPSCs is highly sought after by iPSC researchers.

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The discovery of both CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) and associated proteins, the Cas nucleases, has revolutionized the field of gene-editing.  Characterization of the role of the CRISPR-Cas system in pathogen detection, the immune response, and DNA repair mechanisms, has enabled this naturally occurring biological system to be harnessed and developed as a valuable research tool.

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The current job market is a confusing, intimidating place for both employers and applicants. Internships are an excellent opportunity to access future talent at an early stage, and also present a range of additional benefits. In this post, we will describe 4 ways that hiring an intern can benefit your team and business.

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When you are planning a project involving stem cell reprogramming, there are several factors to consider when choosing a reprogramming technology and a service provider. This post will highlight 5 questions you may want to answer before choosing a service provider or reprogramming technology.

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Three-dimensional (3D) in vitro culture is now a recognized technique to improve the performance and physiological relevance of immortalized and primary cells. 3D culture also increases proliferation rates in some cell types (e.g. mesenchymal stem cells^[1], osteosarcoma cells^[2], HUVECs^[3], which puts extra demands on nutrient supply and waste removal. This issue can be addressed by the use of bioreactors, which circulate a large quantity of medium over or around the 3D culture and further improve cell proliferation and specific protein expression beyond that seen for static 3D cultures (e.g. dermal fibroblasts^[4], cardiac cells^[5], marrow stromal cells^[6], osteogenic cells^[7].

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