Cytomatrix

212 West Cummings Park
Woburn, MA 01801
Phone: 781-939-0995

 Unique Biomaterial for Long-Term Culturing
of Hematopoietic Stem Cells In Vitro
 National Science Foundation, Phase II SBIR

 This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will extend the development of Cellfoam hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) culture systems for long-term HSC maintenance aimed at advancing bone marrow transplantation and HSC gene therapy procedures. Phase I research demonstrated the ability of Cellfoam to maintain and expand primitive, multipotent HSCs for extended periods in an environment in which no supplemented cytokines are required. Building on the proof of principle established in Phase I research, Phase II will develop advanced Cellfoam applications by addressing the following specific aims:

  • Pre-clinical optimization of large scale Cellfoam-HSC culture systems
  • Evaluation of the in vivo engraftment capabilities of HSCs cultured in large scale Cellfoam systems using a SCID mouse animal model
  • Examination of transduction rates and in vivo engraftment capabilities of HSCs transduced in large scale CellfoamTM systems