Cellec Biotek Ag

University Hospital of Basel

Universitaetsspital Basel

Universitatsspital Basel

Adam Papadimitropoulos

David Wendt

Christian Hirt

Giandomenica Iezzi

Volker Lorber

Manuele Giuseppe Muraro

Elia Piccinini

Laura Spinelli

Stefania Adele Riboldi

Peter Iwatschenko

Manuelle Giuseppe Muraro

The invention relates to a method of in vitro culturing or expanding human or animal tissue ('). The method comprises: obtaining a sample of human or animal tissue; downsizing tissue (&#x2032;) of the sample; generating an assembly by placing the downsized tissue on a scaffold or hydrogel (&#x2032;); arranging the assembly inside a culture chamber of a 3D perfusion system (&#x2032;); and perfusing the assembly in the 3D perfusion system for a predefined time (&#x2032;). The method according to the invention allows for preparing and directly culturing in vitro fresh tissue specimens for a high efficient in vitro culturing using a perfused bioreactor system. As single cells of tissue are in most cases undergoing to an in vitro cell-death due to missing micro environmental signals, the use of downsized tissue, comprising cell clumps and tissue fragments of hundreds of cells, may help to prevent cell death in vitro as well as to maintain the initial heterogeneous tissue microenvironment consisting of specific cell types such as epithelial, stromal and immune cells together. Thus, the method according to the invention is capable of efficiently culturing the whole tissue over time, thus allowing for survival of original cell types.

In vitro culturing or expanding human or animal tissue

A bioreactor for preferably three-dimensional cell culturing comprises a scaffold chamber, a first tube, a second tube and a first valve with a scaffold adapter, a tube adapter and a medium adapter. The first valve has a housing with a longitudinal female portion ending in an opening and a longitudinal actuator being arranged through the opening of the female portion of the housing such that the actuator is arranged partially inside the housing and partially outside the housing, wherein the actuator of the first valve is axially moveable relative to the housing of the first valve between a first position in which the first valve is in the operation position and a second position in which the first valve is in the medium change position. By providing the actuators in the first valve which is applied by axial movements, operation of the bioreactor can be comparably simple and safe.

Bioreactor and rack for mounting bioreactors

Growing community of inventors

Basel, Switzerland

Adam Papadimitropoulos