Bench to bedside shipping of cell and tissue engineered products

Work done in the lab of Dr. Naresh Kasoju at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram

About author

Anju MS obtained her Bachelor’s in Biotechnology from Government College, Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram and her Master’s in Biotechnology from A.J. College of Science and Technology, Thonnakkal, Thiruvananthapuram (both affiliated to University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram). Subsequently, she joined Dr. Naresh Kasoju’s research group at the Biomedical Technology Wing, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram. As part of an exciting project on corneal tissue engineering, she worked on developing in vitro engineered corneal tissue constructs and their temporary storage/ shipping from bench to bedside.

Interview

How would you explain your research outcomes to the non-scientific community?

Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field that uses engineering and life sciences principles to develop biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or enhance tissue function. The bench-side biofabrication of tissue constructs has become relatively well established over the last few years. Transportation of in vitro designed cell or tissue constructs from cell culture facilities to hospitals or clinical setups remains a crucial but usually ignored element. The shipping and storage of in vitro cultivated cells and tissues from manufacturing to clinical sites, regardless of the cell/tissue engineering approach used (top-down or bottom-up), requires special attention.

In this project, we successfully fabricated a shipping device for temporarily storing and shipping in-vitro cultured cells, cell sheets, and tissue engineered constructs. The core of the study was a novel multipurpose device for temporary storage/shipping of cell culture dishes containing cell/ tissue constructs. The device, made with readily available raw materials, contains three elements: a specialized lid, polymeric plates having grooves and a set of nuts and bolts. This study demonstrates the use of the device in the transportation of 2D cell culture, cell sheets, cell-laden scaffolds and cell encapsulated hydrogels. The device was scalable, easy to use, could be made for a single or multi-use purpose, and could be resized to fit various culture dishes/flasks. The design of the storage/ shipping device described in this study thus offers versatile features and applications.

How do these findings contribute to your research area?

Conventionally, cells cultured in tissue culture flasks have been stored and shipped at ambient temperatures as a standard procedure. Equally, one of the popular methods of storing and shipment cryopreserved cells has been based on liquid nitrogen. However, storage/ shipping of cells grown on thermo-responsive substrates, encapsulated in hydrogels, seeded on electrospun scaffolds, etc., poses a challenge in the tissue engineering field. Further, the above mentioned approaches of storage and shipping were reported to have detrimental effects on cell characteristics and material features and thus require careful consideration. Our product stands out from these techniques because it can maintain cell characteristics, which was very well demonstrated in this paper. The device also provides a continuous workflow from cell culture in the lab to its application on the patient in the clinic.

“This study demonstrates the use of the device in the transportation of 2D cell culture, cell sheets, cell-laden scaffolds and cell encapsulated hydrogels. “

What was the exciting moment during your research?

As far as this particular project is concerned, the moment we found a problem with the shipping of cell sheets developed using a thermoresponsive polymer, we immediately started drawing various designs and made a few prototypes. Though the design published in the paper was the most promising among those, we were skeptical since we couldn’t predict how the device would maintain the cell characteristics. We started wet lab work and shipped 2D Cell culture on it. Subsequently, the moment we saw the cells were healthy and viable, through microscopy, we felt that eureka moment.

What do you hope to do next?

The published work is a mere proof of concept study showing the design of a multipurpose device for temporary storage/shipping of cell culture dishes holding cell/ tissue constructs. We are working on this concept in several dimensions to incorporate gas and temperature control, followed by a detailed validation. We are happy to work with academic and industrial partners in this regard. The intellectual property is protected via an Indian patent (No 202141025466) and an Indian design registration (No 339436-002).

Where do you seek scientific inspiration from?

Artists explain that they were inspired by nature, and a deep look into nature unlocks imagination and inspires creativity. Likewise, biologists get excited by certain natural mysteries and develop enthusiasm to unravel them. Along similar lines, being a biologist, I get fascinated by the simple problems faced in the lab, such as the one described in this paper, and work on developing versatile solutions that have greater implications.

How do you intend to help Indian science improve?

From birth, we are all basic scientists because, from childhood, we start to question everything we see, which is essential. After all, that’s what makes us human. But when we become older, the questioning ends at a particular point. To improve our scientific ability, first of all, we have to raise questions. Questioning improves the potential to think, and that, in turn, develops curiosity to find the answers. Ask questions and communicate to its core what helps Indian science to improve; this is what I believe.

Reference

Anju MS, Athira RK, Ramesh Babu V, Anil Kumar PR, Naresh Kasoju. A versatile approach for temporary storage and shipping of in vitro cultured cells, cell sheets and tissue engineered constructs – a preliminary report. Engineered Regeneration 2022, 3(3): 283–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engreg.2022.07.001

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Podcast Manager & Host

An experienced Biomedical scientist with focus on inflammation research, Dr. Vikram Gujar is working as a postdoc at Northwestern University, Chicago. Besides science, he enjoys hiking, cooking and playing Bansuri

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