(282f) Integrated Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells in a Low-Cost Device

Human
induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have unlimited proliferation capability
and potential to differentiate into all somatic cells. Their derivatives
contain patients¡¯ genetic information and can model many diseases.
Additionally, derivatives of patient-specific iPSCs induce minimal immune rejection
in vivo. With this unique combination of properties, iPSCs open the avenue to
personalized medicine including personalized drug screening, toxicity test,
cell therapy and tissue engineering. However, the further advance of iPSC-based
personalized medicine is currently limited by the difficulty to generate iPSCs
for large populations and at affordable cost. We here report a low-cost device
to address this challenge. The device allows the entire bioprocess for
generating high quality (>95%) and quantity of iPSCs (1 ¡Á 10⁹ with
2ml of AlgTube) for one patient to be done automatically within a closed conical
tube without cell passaging. Reprograming fibroblasts into iPSCs is done in
alginate hydrogel microtubes within Single-Conical-Tube (SCOT) device. The
microenvironment in the tube enhances the reprograming and expansion of the
generated iPSCs, while inhibits the expansion of fibroblasts, resulting in high
purity and yield of iPSCs (Fig. 1). Additionally, iPSCs can be further
differentiated into somatic cells in the device. Thus, the device also allows
integrated iPSCs generation, expansion and differentiation to produce any
somatic cell types. This device can be made in large quantities at low cost for
manufacturing iPSCs (and their derivatives in necessary) for large populations
at affordable cost. Due to the automation and closed culture environment, this
SCOT device allows producing iPSCs at the point-of-care. It will significantly
advance the iPSCs-based personalized medicine. (Published in Biomaterials,
189, pp.23-36.)