Versatile Synthetic Substrates for Cellular Assay Development and 3D Organoid Culture and Screening

Stem Pharm Inc. has developed a synthetic hydrogel platform that allows the design and optimization of substrates for cell expansion, differentiation, and screening applications, including 3D cell culture and organoid models. Through control of the substrate’s mechanical properties and presentation of adhesion ligand as well as utilizing chemistries that maintain cellular health and function, we provide cell-specific biomaterials for advanced cellular assay platforms and specialized cell expansion and differentiation applications. For many applications, these hydrogels provide advantages over animal-derived biomaterials such as the mouse sarcoma–derived products from Engelbreth-Holm-Swarm, marketed as Matrigel™, Geltrex™, and Cultrex™. For example, Stem Pharm has developed a hydrogel to promote vascular tubulogenesis that enables high-throughput screening (HTS) for vascular disruptors using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)-derived endothelial cells. Use of this hydrogel provides advantages over assay platforms that use Matrigel and similar products, which are challenging in an HTS workflow due to their temperature sensitivity and lot-to-lot variability.

The Stem Pharm hydrogel platform is flexible for use in standard cell culture workflows, not requiring complex bioprinting methodologies and is suitable for coculture and 3D organoid applications. Organoids can be formed and maintained in multi-well plates by adhering to the hydrogel rather than growing en masse in suspension cultures. This facilitates their use for toxicity or efficacy screening applications, including those requiring imaging readouts. In another example, a neural organoid model, enabled by these hydrogels, was developed that produced multicomponent neural constructs with 3D neuronal and glial organization, organized vascular networks, and microglia with ramified morphologies (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112:12516–12521 (2015) and Exp Biol Med 242:1679–1689 (2017)). This model was utilized in a developmental neurotoxicity screen and was demonstrated to be very reproducible both well-to-well and between independent experiments.

This webinar will provide background on the rationale for use of synthetic hydrogels for advanced cellular applications in the drug discovery arena and will highlight techniques and technologies used to analyze outputs of these applications.

Speaker

Connie Lebakken, Ph.D., President and Chief Operating Officer, Stem Pharm, Incorporated

Connie Lebakken, PhD—cofounder and chief operating officer of Stem Pharm, Incorporated—has extensive experience in cell biology, assay development, and advancement of technologies through the product development pipeline. She received her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin and did her postdoctoral training in Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa. She has held leadership roles in Operations and Research and Development at life science companies throughout her career. Dr. Lebakken has expertise in the development of high-throughput biochemical and cell-based drug discovery assays and in the development of tools and protocols to improve stem cell workflows. She is currently leading Stem Pharm’s efforts to commercialize advanced biomaterials for cellular applications, including advanced cellular assays, organoid formation for screening purposes, and cell expansion for therapeutic purposes.

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