PeptiMatrix: Next generation peptide hydrogels for 3D cell culture

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Current _in vitro_ models of development and disease typically fail to recapitulate the complexities of native tissue microenvironments, leading to a poor extrapolation of _in vitro_ findings to _in vivo_ relevance. This is a major contributing factor to the high attrition rate of new drugs moving from the lab to the clinic, leading to an estimated cost of US$2 billion to bring a new lifesaving therapy to market.Growing recognition of this has led to a recent interest in developing more sophisticated 3D _in vitro_ model platforms which allow for customisation of matrix stiffness and composition. However, despite considerable research effort, no single platform has yet pulled ahead of the competition. With the support of the BBSRC and NC3Rs, we have developed a fully synthetic self-assembling peptide hydrogel (SAPH) platform which aims to address all the current shortcomings of available 3D _in vitro_ model platforms.PeptiMatrix(tm) is chemically well-defined, has limited batch variability, and contains no irrelevant animal-derived material. It can also be customised via a variety of available methods to match the stiffness and composition of any target tissue type. Each formulation of PeptiMatrix(tm) will, therefore, have been specifically tailored to model a specific tissue or tissue type and validated in a relevant cell-based assay.PeptiMatrix(tm) is supplied ready-to-use: simply combine with your cells of interest and plate out. Your cells will then cluster and grow in 3D, in a physiologically relevant and reproducible way. This saves time versus similar products that require complex preparatory steps or require that you customise (and optimise) the hydrogel yourself.