In the course of the execution of the READCELL Proof of Concept grant we have demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed idea. We succeeded to harvest adherent cells from the support where they were growing, by applying an external, non-invasive stimulus: near-infrared radiation (NIR). We have additionally improved the marketability of the technology by incorporating two substantial improvements: 1) replacing the glass originally used for the production of plasmonic substrates, with other substrates commonly used in the cell culture industry; 2) replacing the laser originally used as the NIR source with less sophisticated and more inexpensive NIR sources that can be readily implemented in cell culture laboratories.
Having shown the potential of the technology for automated, non-invasive cell harvesting, we established a close collaboration with an industrial partner, currently involved in the joint development of a minimum viable product to perform initial market tests as soon as the technology is sound, reproducibility issues have been solved and the industrialization strategy for the products is chosen.
Successful continuation of this project into a fully developed marketed product will bring into the biopharmaceuticals production arena an important tool for improved production of biopharmaceuticals. The advantages of the system are related to the potential for automation, reduced production costs and no addition of chemicals during the cell harvesting step, thereby resulting in improved quality of the obtained biopharmaceutical products.
