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The treatment of chronic conditions and age-related disorders has
become the greater part of an escalating healthcare burden, and healthcare providers and governments
alike are seeking to find ways of providing patient outcomes that are more effective and more cost
efficient. Regenerative medicine has become a buzzword because of its potential to fulfil all these
requirements.
Regenerative medicine aims to regenerate or replace tissue function that has been lost
due to disease, injury or age. While this history of this field goes back to the late nineteenth
century, it was not until the late twentieth century that its potential was fully realised.
Landmark developments were made with skin grafts, whole organ transplants, and better wound
treatments. Today the possibility of growing organs or tissues on demand has brought stem
cells into the public eye. Increased investment over the last few decades has greatly developed
our understanding of underlying biological processes, enabling companies to develop new treatments
and therapies to improve quality of life.
Freeze Drying and Regenerative Medicine
The challenge in moving from component technologies to regenerative medicine therapies is to
find ways of combining active agents and delivery technologies in a format that enables products
to be manufactured in a regulatory compliant manner, with a manageable shelf life and logistics
requirements. Freeze drying is commonly used to stabilize products which would otherwise quickly
degrade and is widespread in higher-value industries such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.
Freeze drying enables reductions in the cold chain requirement and increases in product shelf life,
which are benefits that enable regenerative medicines approaches to translate to mainstream medicine.
While freeze drying is already used to preserve many types of cells and living organisms, the
growth of ice crystals during the freezing stage can damage or destroy more sensitive types of cells.
Blood in particular has very fragile cell walls. As blood is constantly in very high demand and is
currently not replaceable with any synthetic alternatives, a method of enabling long-term low-cost
storage would be invaluable. Biopharma is
currently investigating the potential of novel polymers
developed by the University of Cambridge to protect blood cells through the freeze drying process
in a project funded by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. This development would be of great benefit
for the distribution of blood in all situations, but particularly in disaster or third world situations
where an infrastructure for transportation of chilled blood might not be available. If proven
successful, the technique could also be applied to other mammalian cell types.
Collagens, gelatins, alginates and ceramics are all being developed as biomaterials to support
the regrowth of cells or tissues. Some provide a structural role in providing scaffolds for tissue
growth, such as bone,
while others may be employed as drug delivery devices to enhance or localise the application
of a medicine.
Scaffolds are designed to assist the natural regrowth of soft tissues and bone after injury or
surgery, and are also potentially important in efforts to grow whole organs from stem cells. The
composition, shape, texture and porosity of scaffolds are all important considerations for supporting
and encouraging cells to regenerate as quickly as possible. The unique combination of processes
and controls offered by freeze drying enables pore size and surface texture to be very closely determined,
with a high level of repeatability and cross-batch equivalence. Biopharma has experience of freeze drying
biomaterials and also utilising freeze drying to control scaffold structure and is currently exploring
the capacity of the process to specify surface characteristics of materials so as to maximise cell
recovery.
Freeze Dryers for Regenerative Medicine
Freeze drying of tissues and other biomaterials requires precise control of temperatures and
pressure. Biopharma supplies a range of freeze dryers suitable for work in this field, including the
world’s only freeze dryer with temperature-controllable shelves that you can fit on a benchtop – the
AdVantage. Its compact size makes it ideal
for laboratories pressed for space and researchers who are working with only relatively small amounts of
product, but without compromising on flexibility or power. It is the ideal process research and development
platform. The AdVantage features the sort of advanced control system normally found on much larger
units, to provide program storage and data recording for analysis and evaluation.
Regenerative Medicine Events
Biopharma will be attending:
June 13-17th TERMIS Galway
July 12-14th UK National Stem Cell Network, Nottingham
Other events (attendance to be confirmed)
August 24-25th Stem Cells Europe, Edinburgh
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