Materials for stem cell factories of the future

Adam Celiz, James G W Smith, Robert Samuel M Langer, Daniel G Anderson, David Alan Winkler, David A Barrett, Martyn C Davies, Lorraine Young, Chris Denning, Morgan R Alexander

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

134 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Polymeric substrates are being identified that could permit translation of human pluripotent stem cells from laboratory-based research to industrial-scale biomedicine. Well-defined materials are required to allow cell banking and to provide the raw material for reproducible differentiation into lineages for large-scale drug-screening programs and clinical use. Yet more than 1 billion cells for each patient are needed to replace losses during heart attack, multiple sclerosis and diabetes. Producing this number of cells is challenging, and a rethink of the current predominant cell-derived substrates is needed to provide technology that can be scaled to meet the needs of millions of patients a year. In this Review, we consider the role of materials discovery, an emerging area of materials chemistry that is in large part driven by the challenges posed by biologists to materials scientists.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)570 - 579
Number of pages10
JournalNature Materials
Volume13
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

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