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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Recently, the microbiome and its role in disease, particularly Inflammatory Bowel Disease has been the focus of much global attention. As our knowledge expands, could this plethora of research be harnessed to help understand the host response to medications? Manipulation of the host's gut microbiome could provide relief from the debilitating symptoms of IBD, whilst sequencing the genome of the organisms colonising these niche environments may open up new drug development avenues for pharma.

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Yokohama, Japan, & San Carlos, California, USA - REPROCELL, Inc., and NeuCyte, Inc., today announced a new distributorship.

Although NeuCyte has direct sales in North America, this new distributorship will grant REPROCELL customers access to NeuCyte's pure and ready-to-use iPSC-derived glutamatergic and GABAergic induced neurons (iNs), supplied with astroglia, media and supplements. These components come in kit formats so the user can set up well-defined, highly functional in vitro co-culture systems for compound screening, disease modeling and neurotoxicity assessment.

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A database linking medical history and tissue compound response has direct relevance to future drug discovery projects and healthcare stratification. By making this data available to point-of-care centers, it could transform medication management approaches and improve individual patient care^[1]. As the concept of integrating Big Data with healthcare is on the rise, it is increasingly appropriate to have reliable information at your fingertips.

REPROCELL has initiated a research and development project where historical data regarding Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) has been collated. Tissue samples were donated by patients for whom conservative treatment had failed and subsequently required surgical intervention. This data collection project is in its infancy, but it already includes the anonymized medical history of over 250 different donors.

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Most biologists are familiar with the precision gene editing system CRISPR. But what about SNIPER^†? SNIPER is a digital PCR (dPCR) and culture-based screening technology that has the power to enhance CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing – enabling multiplex gene modification, biallelic gene insertions and increased screening efficiency. Read on to find out more about how SNIPER can enhance your precision gene editing protocols and save you time, money and effort.

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Imagine CRISPR – but more efficient, reliable and flexible. SNIPER works in synergy with the CRISPR-Cas9 system to fulfill even the most challenging gene editing projects – including biallelic modifications, single base-pair changes and large DNA insertions. Read on to discover four examples of CRISPR-SNIPER in action.

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Axion BioSystems, Inc., the world leader in multi-well microelectrode array (MEA) systems, has announced REPROCELL as the new distributor of its Maestro systems and consumables in Japan.

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The lab-scale system will allow researchers to study and culture stem cells in suspension

Glasgow, UK: REPROCELL Europe Ltd today announced exclusive distribution rights to a single-use reactor series for stem cell culture in 11 European countries*. The ABLE Biott Bioreactor System is a lab-scaled bioreactor that offers a new way for stem cell researchers to study and culture pluripotent stem cells.

“We are excited to offer our customers the chance to access this innovative new bioreactor, which is ideal for the culture of pluripotent stem cells” said Dr David Bunton, CEO at REPROCELL Europe Ltd. “The product has been rapidly and widely adopted by stem cell scientists in Japan and the US, with the recent CE marking now enabling its use in Europe”.

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It is not uncommon that at a late-stage of drug development (especially during the clinical testing) unforeseen toxicities and/or poor efficacy are observed. This is often, but not only, due to the limitations of the off-target screening used by pharma (the so-called secondary pharmacology). Although still useful for quickly screening a relatively high number of potential off-target hits, these screening studies, often used by pharmaceutical companies, are in the form of a proprietary set of in vitro methods biased and/or tailored for the specific molecule background of the drug candidate. Often, this does not allow evaluation in a clinical context and can contribute to the high rate of drug failures (attrition rate) at a later stage of the drug discovery process. This is a costly “Achilles heel” for the pharmaceutical industry^[1].

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Healthcare data is predicted to expand by 43 percent by 2020, to an incomprehensible level of 2.3 zettabytes. The size of the data is also not the only inevitable issue, it’s the type of data. Eighty percent of it is completely unstructured and mostly unlabelled, meaning organizations will find it increasingly difficult to extract any value or outcomes from the datasets ^[1].

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