Project description
Cryopreservation of hepatocyte monolayers for drug toxicity screening
The goal of the EU-funded FAST_TOX project is to change how liver cells are cryopreserved for the toxicological testing market. Current standard procedures use isolated hepatocyte (liver cells) in toxicity screening. However, these cells must be stored frozen in suspension, while testing is undertaken on cells grown and attached to scaffolds as monolayers. Current methods do not allow cryopreservation of cells as monolayers, and the additional effort involved in processing, plating and growing the cells creates a bottleneck. FAST_TOX will use innovative cryoprotective polymers which allow cryopreservation of hepatocytes directly on the tissue culture plastic, enabling cell banking in an assay-ready format. Researchers have already obtained strong preliminary data demonstrating this concept in several cell lines, filed patents and shown that the polymer materials can be scaled up.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-POC-LS - ERC Proof of Concept Lump Sum PilotHost institution
CV4 8UW Coventry
United Kingdom
See on map
Beneficiaries (1)
CV4 8UW Coventry
See on map