Project description
Advancing cell culture conditions for regenerative medicine, drug discovery and food security
Cells naturally reside in a very crowded/dense tissue context and are subjected simultaneously to numerous tissue-specific stimuli. However, traditional cell cultures are not only conducted in very diluted media, they are also mono-factorial in nature. As a result, biochemical reactions and biological processes occur very slowly, if at all, resulting in cells losing their phenotype and function. The EU-funded ACHIEVE project will first investigate the fundamentals of macromolecular crowding in eukaryotic cell culture to recapitulate in vitro the native tissue density. Subsequently, a multi-factorial approach, combining macromolecular crowding with other bio-inspired in vitro micro-environment modulators, will be employed for the development of functional cell-based regenerative medicine, drug discovery and food security products.
Objective
ACHIEVE focuses on the application of Excluded Volume Effect in cell culture systems in order to enhance Extracellular Matrix (ECM) deposition. It represents a new horizon in in vitro cell culture which will address major challenges in medical advancement and food security. ACHIEVE will elucidate extracellular processes which occur during tissue generation, identifying favourable conditions for optimum tissue cultivation in vitro. These results will be applied in the diverse fields of regenerative medicine, drug discovery and cellular agriculture which all require advancements in in vitro tissue engineering to overcome current bottlenecks. Effective in vitro tissue culture is currently limited by lengthy culture periods. An inability to maintain physiologic (in vivo) conditions during this lengthy in vitro culture leads to cellular phenotype drift, ultimately resulting in generation of an undesired tissue. Enhanced tissue generation in vitro will greatly reduce culture times and costs, effecting improved in vitro tissue substitutes which remain true to their original phenotype. The research will be addressed under four work-packages. WP1 will investigate biochemical, biophysical and biological responses to varying culture conditions; WP 2, 3 and 4 will apply results in the fields of Tissue Engineering, Drug Discovery and Cellular Agriculture respectively. Research will involve extensive characterisation of derived- and stem-cell cultures in varying conditions of expansion and relevant health and safety and preclinical testing. The five year programme will be undertaken at the National University of Ireland, Galway, a centre of excellence in tissue engineering research, at a cost of € 2,439,270.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantHost institution
4 Dublin
Ireland