Automation of Stem Cell Protocols

Abstract

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) have become a vital resource for researchers and industry due to their differentiation capacity, as well as providing access to the cell phenotypes and genotypes from any individual donor. Despite improvements in stem cell technology, maintaining iPS cell lines still requires a significant amount of time and technical skill from cell culture technicians. Such steps include consistent media changes, cell counting and confluence analyses, cell passaging, cryopreservation, and subsequent thawing and plating of those cells. For this research, these processes have been transitioned onto an automated cell culturing platform. It is shown here that the automated cell culturing platform is able to properly execute DMSO-free cryopreservation, thawing, plating, and cell maintenance. This demonstrated ability to perform these functions completely automated without a technician is a technical advancement in pluripotent stem cell culturing and may provide financial benefits within a cell culture laboratory.