"We are excited about working with The Electrospinning Company to explore the growing area of 3D cell culture. The Mimetix scaffolds very well mimic the nature and function of the extracellular matrix. Various upcyte cells can readily be seeded and subsequently penetrate into the scaffolds. As the scaffolds are available in all popular formats, they enable us to now perform scalable metabolic studies using our upcyte Hepatocytes in a robust and standardized manner. The combination of both technologies will undoubtedly lead to a more predictive culture model without the limitation of cell supply" commented Dr. Joris Braspenning, Managing Director of Medicyte GmbH.

"The Electrospinning Company is delighted to be working with Medicyte to develop and offer standard, scalable predictive liver cell culture models with the predictive power of 3D" said Ann Kramer, CEO of The Electrospinning Company.

Medicyte will offer Mimetix 3D cell culture plates together with its upcyte Hepatocytes. Early data, already presented at academic meetings, indicates that Medicyte’s upcyte hepatocytes combine the benefits of quantity (generation of up to 2000 vials per donor) with the quality of primary hepatocytes. Furthermore, Mimetix 96 well plates provide an environment for the 3D culture of upcyte Hepatocytes and investigation of CYP induction using both enzyme activities and mRNA as endpoint measurements. upcyte Hepatocytes cultured in 3D in the Mimetix® scaffold have demonstrated excellent well-to-well reproducibility in cell proliferation experiments and shown equivalent or higher induced CYP3A4 activity than in a 2D monolayer. For more detail click here.

Medicyte and The Electrospinning Company are partners in the European Union Seventh Framework Programme project ReLiver which aims to build a bioartificial liver organoid. Research within this project has shown the potential value of the combination of upcyte Hepatocytes and Mimetix scaffolds for predictive 3D cell-based assays. This research is receiving funding (4.2 Mio Euros) from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/ 2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 304961.