THE automation and miniaturisation techniques that have transformed genetics research are now being used to speed up work on stem cells.
Stem cells can be used 鈥渁s is鈥� for treating some conditions. But for many therapies they first need to be turned into specialised cells such as skin cells. To find the best ways of achieving this, a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a robotic system that can place up to 1700 separate samples of stem cells on a single glass slide measuring 2.5 by 7.5 centimetres. Each colony can be grown on a different material deposited on the array, allowing researchers to identify which is best for growing the cells. The colonies can also be exposed en masse or in discrete groups to different recipes of growth factors to find out which turn stem cells into more specialised cells. The work will appear in Nature Biotechnology.
鈥淵ou can do all these things and test hundreds of thousands of samples in just a couple of days,鈥� says team leader Bob Langer. 鈥淭he system allows us to rapidly explore the growth, attachment and differentiation of stem cells, and we鈥檇 love anyone to use it.鈥�
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