Developing a system for the continuous manufacture of red blood cells

红血球（rbc）目前是从捐赠者身上采集的，是细胞治疗最常见的形式。输血对红细胞有迫切的需求，随着人口预期寿命的延长，这种需求预计会增加。鉴于此，从不同的前体细胞开始在体外生成红细胞的研究已经取得了相当大的进展，但是没有技术能够扩大这一过程，以满足当前和未来的细胞需求。此外，红细胞的大规模生产与其他应用/市场有关。例如，有研究表明，用血液替代品重新灌注器官的移植成功率更高，清洁肉公司会对添加一种安全、不含动物成分、价格合理的红细胞来源感兴趣，以改善其产品的口感和质地。鉴于此，CellulaREvolution愿意进行工业研究，以测试/调整其智能涂层技术，以实现红细胞的连续生产。CellulaREvolution是一家最近从纽卡斯尔大学分拆出来的公司，拥有一项高度创新的技术，可以连续制造细胞。我们的新方法是从传统的批量培养（其过于复杂的方法来增加表面积）转移到连续培养系统，细胞不断产生。细胞目前是分批培养的，每批的大小受细胞附着的表面积（例如烧瓶大小）的限制。重要的是，批量培养技术无法满足我们相信我们的连续技术可以解决的不同应用对细胞的需求。该项目旨在探索我们持续生产红细胞的工艺，可以对最终用户（即患者）产生重大影响，同时帮助公司发展，筹集更多投资，产生专有技术和知识产权。此外，在完成后，其他公司也可以从这个项目中受益，因为我们的目标是通过合作/伙伴关系来测试新开发的技术。

Red blood cells (RBCs) are currently harvested from donors and represent the most common form of cell-based therapy. There is an urgent need for RBCs for transfusion, and this demand is predicted to rise as the population continues to have longer life expectations. In light of this, there has been considerable research advancement to generate RBCs in vitro starting from different precursor cells, however there are no technologies enabling the scaling-up of the process in order to meet the current and future demand of cells. In addition, high-scale production of RBCs is relevant for other applications/markets. For instance, it has been shown that organs that are re-perfused with blood substitutes have a greater transplant success and clean meat companies would be interested in adding a safe, animal-free and affordable source of RBCs to improve the taste and texture of their products. In light of this, CellulaREvolution is willing to undertake industrial research to test/adapt its smart coating technology for the continuous production of RBCs.CellulaREvolution is a company that recently spun-out from Newcastle University with a highly innovative technology that allows the continuous manufacture of cells. Our novel approach is to move from the traditional batch culture (with its overly complicated ways to increase surface area) to a continuous culture system where cells are produced unremittingly. Cells are currently grown in batches, the size of each batch limited by the surface area upon which the cells are attached (e.g. flask size). Importantly, batch culture technologies are not able to meet the demand for cells for different applications that we believe our continuous technology can address.This project aiming at exploring our process for the continuous manufacture of RBCs, can have a great impact on the end users (i.e. patients) while helping the company growing, raising more investments, generating know-how and IP. Moreover, after its completion, other companies could also benefit from this project since we aim to test the newly developed technology via collaborations/partnerships.