Testing stem cell health without testing stem cells! The great hope for future medical miracles has been made even easier with this breakthrough
Pluripotent stem cells hold great promise in the field of regenerative medicine. With an ability to propagate indefinitely, alongside the capability to differentiate into any other type of cell in the body, the demand for such cells Is incredibly high.
As such, the scale of production of pluripotent stem cells is significantly increasing. Currently, the commercially available methods of assessing the pluripotency of stem cells are relatively insensitive to the early loss of pluripotency and require the removal of cells from a culture, which can only occur every 4-5 days.
The University of Manchester have developed an assay that can be performed daily, a significant improvement on current tests, which allows for the early identification and therefore reversal of loss of pluripotency as early as 48 hours after onset. This unique assay is non-destructive to cells, and also allows for frequent monitoring as well as early intervention and recovery.
