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Cytomatrix |
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Selection, Expansion and Storage of Cord Blood Stem Cells in a Novel Bioreactor |
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| National Science Foundation, Phase I SBIR This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will examine the ability of a novel three-dimensional biomaterial, Cellfoam, to pre-select, expand, cryopreserve and transduce hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs) present in cord blood (CB). Preliminary data from NSF Phase I award DMI-9661006 show that CD34+ HPCs cultured in Cellfoam without exogenous cytokines are expanded 8-10 fold while maintaining their viability and multipotency. HPCs can be cryopreserved in Cellfoam, thawed, re-cultured, and transduced efficiently with a retroviral vector. We propose to examine a novel application of Cellfoam: the integrated pre-selection, expansion, cryopreservation and transduction CB HPCs. We will utilize cells from either unfractionated, Ficoll purified or CD34+ selected preparations of pooled CB samples to evaluate the survival, phenotype and multipotency of cells pre-cultured in Cellfoam without cytokines for up to four weeks and cryopreserved in the same units for one month. We will also examine the retroviral transduction of thawed HPCs over three weeks. By using different CB fractions we may isolate novel, critical subsets of HPCs. |
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