Cell culture in change - an overview
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Over the last years, cell culture is increasingly often used for industrial purpose especially in the area of drug development and testing. This leads to the positive effect, that for the first time, new methods are developed in quick succession and old difficulties are challenged.
Cell cultures are now used to produce peptides and protein drugs in bioreactors. Primary cells are used as a replacement for animal models and tests and in the tissue engineering area, 3D-cell culture models become medication themselves as so-called TEPs (tissue engineering products) or ATMPs (advance therapy medicinal products).
Even though some advancements are expensive, many other of these new developments are scalable, suitable and affordable for academic and small business use as well. |
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Never change a running system?
Surely, this does not mean that everything that used to be correct now becomes false. However, in many respects changes of old protocols or the implementation of newly developed reagents may increase quality or reliability of results. New equipment may be unfamiliar but it may standardize procedures, simplify methods or generate completely new information. So, before saying “it also works this way” take a look and think about whether a new technology has the potential to be useful for you. Even if you would have to revise a SOP the change might pay off soon.