Cyntellect announces commercial availability of Stem Cell Manager

Sep 16 2009

Cyntellect, Inc., a privately-held life sciences company commercializing products to advance life science and stem cell research, biopharmaceutical production, and drug discovery, announced today the commercial availability of Stem Cell Manager™ powered by LEAP™. This new application manages a series of stem cell research processes, including automated physical passage of stem cells, automated embryoid body generation, and purification of specialized cell types derived from stem cells. Stem Cell Manager is powered by Cyntellect’s LEAP Cell Processing Workstation.

Current approaches to physical stem cell passage require specialized knives, razors, or pipettes to manually section stem cell colonies. Traditional enzymatic methods using collagenase or trypsin result in significant cellular trauma. By contrast, the Stem Cell Manager application automates physical passage of stem cell colonies using non-contact, closed-system laser manipulation instead of invasive mechanical devices. Laser-mediated sectioning of embryonic stem (ES) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells maintains a stable stem cell phenotype, reduces labor cost, improves standardization and produces superior consistency of stem cell cultures, coupled with a lack of enzymatic dissociation of these sensitive cells. The application also reduces the skill and training threshold for generation of consistent high-quality ES and iPS cultures.

“The Stem Cell Manager application represents a quantum leap forward in stem cell research,” said Dr. Fred Koller, Cyntellect’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Physical passage of stem cell colonies using laser manipulation instead of mechanical interventions will accelerate discovery and lower costs at the same time.” Cyntellect will introduce the Stem Cell Manager application at the World Stem Cell Congress in Baltimore, MD on September 21.

The Stem Cell Manager application uses laser-mediated sectioning of ES and iPS cell cultures to create specific-sized clumps in a sterile, closed multi-well plate environment. Clumps of defined size can then be transferred to new culture dishes by simple pipetting. Enzymes are not required for passage using the Stem Cell Manager application. Automated physical passage of ES and iPS cell cultures using the Stem Cell Manager application reduces the labor and time demands associated with manual passage techniques. The Stem Cell Manager application employs the same principles to also deliver uniformly-sized embryoid bodies from stem cell cultures, which results in higher yield and consistency of differentiated cell types from these high value cultures.

The LEAP Cell Processing Workstation combines ultra high-speed imaging, multi-parameter visual cell characterization, and simultaneous laser-based cell manipulation to process cells with great precision and simplicity in their natural state. The system can analyze and process adherent and non-adherent cell types using C-lect™ applications kits and microplates. LEAP applications include rapid cell line generation, precise rare cell detection, single cell genetic profiling, stem cell processing, as well as execution of cell health assays and label-free cell analysis.

http://www.cyntellect.com/