I-Corps: Affordable Thermo-Responsive Cell Culture Supports for Damage-Free Cell Harvesting

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是降低用于再生医学（RM）的高质量干细胞和原代细胞的生产成本，从而降低医疗费用并提高个人的生活质量。预计到2020年，RM的全球市场规模将达到676亿美元，它能够修复、替换和再生受疾病/紊乱、年龄或损伤影响的组织和器官。常用的细胞采集方法会对细胞，尤其是原代细胞和干细胞造成严重的损伤。我们的技术允许收获无损伤细胞，即保留基本的细胞功能和特性，这对RM来说是优越的。无损伤细胞还将通过获得更多的临床相关结果来加强基础生命科学研究，而这些结果是使用细胞系或受损细胞无法获得的。虽然有一种商业上可用的热响应产品用于减少收获过程中的细胞损伤，但它太昂贵而无法广泛采用。我们的技术成本低、可扩展、可复制，服务于不断增长的大型市场。通过这个项目，我们将确定关键的采用市场，正确定义关键的产品属性，并了解规模化需求，从而为关键的医学研究和应用提供高质量的干细胞和原代细胞来源。I-Corps项目将验证应用热响应支架进行无损伤和无化学细胞收集的市场潜力，这对基于细胞的再生医学和基础生命科学研究至关重要。我们生产热敏支架的技术采用了一种成本效益高且简单的工艺，只涉及3个步骤：热敏聚合物的混合、铸造和热退火，以及形成网络的硅烷。在退火过程中，硅烷分子锚定在表面，同时形成网络以捕获聚合物链。其他报道的热响应表面通常是通过使用不易接近的电子束照射或等离子体聚合来沉积热响应层，或在表面上辛苦地生长热响应聚合物来制备的。此外，与商业产品相比，我们的技术可以增强细胞附着和生长，并在冷却时加速细胞脱离，从而避免细胞损伤。因此，我们的技术，在研究论文中描述和专利保护，为干细胞和原代细胞的商业扩展和基础研究提供了更好的平台。此外，我们的技术，与小规模的样品，已通过另一个研究小组的各种应用验证。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to reduce production costs of high-quality stem and primary cells for regenerative medicine (RM), consequently reducing medical expenses and improving the quality of life for individuals. RM has a projected global market of $67.6 billion by 2020, and is capable of repairing, replacing and regenerating tissues and organs that are affected by disease/disorder, age, or injury. The common cell harvesting methods cause severe damage to cells, especially primary cells and stem cells. Our technology allows harvesting damage free cells, i.e., retaining essential cell functionalities and characteristics, which are superior for RM. Damage free cells will also enhance basic life science research by obtaining more clinical relevant results that cannot be achieved by using cell lines or damaged cells. While there is one commercially available thermo-responsive product being used to reduce cell damages during harvesting, it is too expensive to be adopted widely. Our technology is low cost, scalable, reproducible, and serves large growing markets. Through this project, we will identify key markets for adoption, correctly define the key product attributes, and understand scaling requirements, hence providing a source of high-quality stem and primary cells for critical medical research and applications.This I-Corps project will validate market potentials of applying thermo-responsive supports for damage free and chemical free cell harvesting, which is crucial for cell based regenerative medicine and basic life science research. Our technology for generating thermo-responsive supports employs a cost-effective and simple process that involves only 3 steps: blending, casting and thermal annealing of a thermo-responsive polymer and a network forming silane. During annealing, the silane molecules anchor to the surface while simultaneously forming networks to entrap polymer chains. Other reported thermo-responsive surfaces generally are prepared by using non-easily accessible electron beam irradiation or plasma polymerization to deposit a thermo-responsive layer, or painstakingly grow the thermo-responsive polymer on a surface. Also, as compared to the commercial product, our technology allows enhanced cell attachment and growth, and accelerated cell detachment upon cooling, thus avoiding cell damage. Therefore, our technology, described in research papers and patent protected, provides better platforms for commercial expansion of stem and primary cells and for basic research. In addition, our technology, with small scale samples, has been validated by another research group for a variety of applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.