Safer cell culture supplement launched
new supplement designed to boost the growth of cells used in
research and bioprocessing, that does not contain fetal bovine
serum.
The company said it has launched Hybri-CYTE is in response to customer requests for supplements that do not contain bovine serum.
Companies making drugs in cell culture have been trying to reduce the use of fetal bovine serum, for example, because of the risk that it may carry the agents that cause transmissible spongiform encephalopathies such as mad cow disease and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseases (vCJD) in humans.
"A bioprocessor can eliminate the use of fetal bovine serum in one of the most common cell culture applications by using Hybri-CYTE," said David Bellitt, Celliance's president.
Hybri-CYTE - the first of what will be a completely new range of serum free supplements - is designed for use in hybridoma cell culture and has been shown to work with mouse, rat and rabbit derived cell lines.
It incorporates a number of Celliance's proprietary cell culture products, such as Celliance's flagship EX-CYTE growth enhancing media supplement, Probumin BSA and Incelligent Animal Free insulin. Later this year Celliance will release Onco-CYTE, for use with cancer and HeLa cell culture. Additional products designed for use with two other commonly used cell lines - CHO and HEK293 - are in development.
Celliance was formed last Autumn by Serologicals Corp of the US with the express aim of boosting the firm's presence in the serum-free supplement market.
While the safety advantages of replacing bovine-based products are not in dispute, the use of non-animal products has typically resulted in lower productivity and higher costs. Celliance believes its new products have reversed that trend.
