The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 12, 2008
Filed:
Sep. 04, 2002
Ramkumar Mandalam, Union City, CA (US);
Chunhui Xu, Cupertino, CA (US);
Joseph D. Gold, San Francisco, CA (US);
Melissa K. Carpenter, Castro Valley, CA (US);
Ramkumar Mandalam, Union City, CA (US);
Chunhui Xu, Cupertino, CA (US);
Joseph D. Gold, San Francisco, CA (US);
Melissa K. Carpenter, Castro Valley, CA (US);
Geron Corporation, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Abstract
This disclosure provides an improved system for culturing human pluripotent stem cells. Traditionally, pluripotent stem cells are cultured on a layer of feeder cells (such as mouse embryonic fibroblasts) to prevent them from differentiating. In the system described here, the role of feeder cells is replaced by components added to the culture environment that support rapid proliferation without differentiation. Effective features are a suitable support structure for the cells, and an effective medium that can be added fresh to the culture without being preconditioned by another cell type. Culturing human embryonic stem cells in fresh medium according to this invention causes the cells to expand surprisingly rapidly, while retaining the ability to differentiate into cells representing all three embryonic germ layers. This new culture system allows for bulk proliferation of pPS cells for commercial production of important products for use in drug screening and human therapy.