Cellnest was designed and manufactured by Fujifilm Corporation.
“Fujifilm sold cellnest through other company channels previously. However, Fujifilm Irvine Scientific is best placed to sell these products since they are complementary to our portfolio of cell culture media for primary cells. We joined Fujifilm in 2018 and synergies such as this are part of the Fujifilm life science strategy,” said Lori Serles, spokesperson, Fujifilm Irvine Scientific.
Attachment substrates mimic the extracellular matrix (ECM), a complex and dynamic environment in which cells reside in vivo, in cell culture and allow for the adhesion, expansion, and potential differentiation of stem cells.
Enabling research, smoothing regulatory process
Unlike animal-derived components, which can introduce unpredictability in results, the chemically defined, animal component-free formula of cellnest provides consistent results to researchers and can smooth the regulatory path to commercialization, according to Fujifilm Irvine Scientific.
Serles expanded on those aspects, maintaining that natural and undefined components present regulatory and production concerns.
“There is considerable quantitative and qualitative variability in the composition of serum and serum–derived products such as HSA. Levels of key growth factors, hormone, etc. can vary widely. The components in media and the culture system affect attachment, growth, differentiation, phenotype, etc., and ultimately, that produces variability in in the culture system. While that might not be critical in early research, for translational and clinical research, reliable results are necessary.
“Regulatory bodies want to mitigate risk. Using a defined substrate in the culture system reduces the risk of variability in the end treatment/efficacy of the therapy. It also reduces risk of adventitious agents entering the process,” she claimed.
Advancing cell and gene therapies
What type of cell or gene therapy research will the use of this substrate help advance?
"Cellnest will contribute to advancing cell therapies involving human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC). The cell and gene therapy market is maturing and the number of therapies progressing to clinical research phases is increasing rapidly. By providing defined and chemically defined products that can contribute to reliable, consistent results in culture systems, we are supporting this maturation. More therapeutic uses for hMSCs are being discovered, including new clinical trials for the treatment of coronavirus-induced disease,” Serles told BioPharma-Reporter.
Cellnest is compatible with any adherent cell type that binds to the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) domain, an amino acid sequence within the extracellular matrix protein fibronectin that mediates cell attachment, said the producer.
