TAP to unveil innovative RAFT system at TERMIS Conference

May 20 2010

The Automation Partnership (TAP), a world leader in the design and development of innovative automation for life science applications, is pleased to announce it will be unveiling RAFT (Real Architecture for 3D Tissue), its innovative system for generating reproducible, 3D collagen tissue constructs on TAP Stand 1 at the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) Conference on June 13-17, in Galway, Ireland.

“Scientists have been looking for ways to make complex tissues that truly mimic the cell's microenvironment, reliably and reproducibly. Our RAFT system is an enabling technology that addresses this need, automating and scaling up manufacture of uniform collagen-based biomimetic tissues.”

RAFT is a new system for scientists to create consistent, well defined 3D tissues in a convenient, simple-to-use format. It has been developed in collaboration with leading tissue engineering academics and uses a novel, patented technology for making multi-cellular 3D tissue constructs rapidly (<1 hour), simply and reproducibly.

Cells and neutralised collagen are mixed, pipetted into a special 24 well plate and incubated. Gentle, controlled compression is applied to the cell seeded hydrogels (by absorbent plungers) which removes some liquid, increasing the cell and collagen concentration 100 fold. The construct surface can be embossed with micro scale topology, and could be used to mimic the in vivo stem cell microenvironment, then culture a different cell type on the surface. RAFT allows complex multilayer tissues to be formed - with different cell types in each layer - and cells to be co-cultured in a well controlled way. The resulting biomimetic tissues, made from fibrillar collagen (the main component of extracellular matrix), are strong, transparent and 50-100μm thick.

TAP has developed a workstation and consumables to automate and scale up this 3D tissue production process, enabling up to 24 tissues to be made in parallel. Tissues are made either in the wells of a 24-well plate; on permeable membrane inserts for barrier assays or cultured at an air/liquid interface, for example to form stratified epithelia. The tissue remains in the same well from its creation until the end of the experiment and can be analysed using standard techniques.

To find out about the innovative RAFT system, TAP's experts will be on the TAP Stand 1 at TERMIS discussing how the system can be used. TAP's Chief Scientific Officer (CSO), Dr Rosemary Drake will also be giving a presentation, entitled, "RAFT - Real Architecture for 3D Tissue, a new technology for simple and reliable creation of highly biomimetic tissue". This will take place at the lunchtime presentations on Monday 14^th June and will outline proof-of-concept data, where RAFT has been used to produce epithelial tissues. It will also describe how RAFT is being used at University College London's Institute of Ophthalmology to generate reproducible 3D human corneal tissues for use in pre-clinical studies.

Dr Rosemary Drake, CSO at TAP explained: "Scientists have been looking for ways to make complex tissues that truly mimic the cell's microenvironment, reliably and reproducibly. Our RAFT system is an enabling technology that addresses this need, automating and scaling up manufacture of uniform collagen-based biomimetic tissues."

Dr Drake added: "RAFT makes it easy for cell biologists and tissue engineers to create 3D tissues of their choice and we would welcome the opportunity to discuss how RAFT can help them make progress with their research, and explore opportunities to collaborate with them."