Author Archives: Maria Thompson

CryoPodâ„¢ Carrier: Standardized Portable Cryogenic Handling of Cellular Therapies

Temperature control during sourcing, manufacturing, and delivery of cell therapies is crucial, as fluctuations can affect viability and function of the cells, and potentially, the overall efficacy and safety of the therapeutic product. In many cell therapy workflows, source cells arrive cryopreserved at LN2 temperatures (-150 to -196 °C) and post-manufacturing, cells are again cryopreserved and stored in vapor- or liquid phase LN2 prior to their use in the clinic. In either case, containers filled with dry ice (-50 to…

ThawSTARâ„¢ Automated Cell-Thawing System: Breakthrough Adaptive Sensing Technology for Reproducible, Standardized Cell Thawing

Advances in cryopreservation techniques have been crucial for the substantial progress achieved in many fields, including cell biology research, drug discovery, bio-banking, and assisted reproduction. While cryopreservation techniques have markedly improved, downstream cell thawing techniques have thus far been neglected, even though proper thawing of cryopreserved materials is essential for optimal cell viability. The success of high-promise fields such as cellular therapy and regenerative medicine require reproducible and standardized handling of the therapeutic cells, which includes thawing both during manufacturing…

Maximizing PMBC Recovery and Viability: A Method to Optimize and Streamline Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cell Isolation, Cryopreservation, and Thawing

The quality of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from whole blood has a significant impact on their subsequent analysis. Maximizing recovery, viability, and functionality of isolated PBMCs is essential to the reliability and consistency of downstream applications, particularly within cell therapy manufacturing. The standard method for purification of PBMCs is density-gradient centrifugation. It requires precise layering of whole blood over a density medium (e.g., Ficoll polysaccharide reagent from GE Healthcare), with careful pipetting of the floating cell layer after…