Claire Richards’ Post

Looking forward to taking part in this webinar - we are keen to support iPSC scientists with QC, genomic stability, reproducibility and provide help if problems occur! Addressing the issue of genomic stability in iPSCs: New approach for restoring cell lines Wednesday 12th June 2024 11am EDT (NA) / 4pm BST (UK) / 5pm CEST (EU-Central) Register: https://lnkd.in/eYt43ZbU https://lnkd.in/ehRAfUta #ipsc #celltherapy #ISSCR #regenerativemedicine #drugdiscovery #geneediting #CLD #stemcells

Another helpful paper investigating the impact of genetic changes in hPSC cultures, this time 18q. Interesting read and again the overarching message is “check your cells”… If you find this daunting or don’t have the time, get in touch, it’s what we are good at! https://lnkd.in/eA7_D_SE #ipsc #cellbiology #qc #drugdiscovery #organoid #cellculture #celllinedevelopment #geneediting #celltherapy

Improving reproducibility and problem solving is at the heart of what we are about. If you are at Advanced Therapies this week do drop by this poster to find out more about RESCUE for cell lines with mosaic genomic anomalies. QC for iPSCs is critical and it can be difficult to know what to do and when, or how to process all the data and information to reach a meaningful conclusion. This is what we excel at! We can bring together the right combination of tests and assays to get the answers you need, and if there is a problem (like a genomic anomaly) we can sort it! https://lnkd.in/ehRAfUta #ipscs #regenerativemedicine #celltherapy #cellandgenetherapy #qc #drugdiscovery #cellbiology

Jo is a fantastic and experienced scientist as well as a genuinely lovely person to work with. I had the pleasure of working with her at Horizon Discovery for a number of years. Any company would be lucky to have her in their team.

Published at the end of last year this is another highly relevant paper on the impact of culture acquired genomic abnormalities in iPSCs: https://lnkd.in/eTcsSBbW It builds on previous work by the group on the recurrent gain of 1q abnormality, a variant more prevalent in feeder-free cultures, that provides cells with proliferative and survival advantages. The 1q variant cells in this paper have significantly impacted cardiomyocyte differentiation and altered phenotype and it delves into the details and potential mechanisms behind this. Differentiation assays are known to suffer with repeatability and protocol challenges and this, in some cases, could be due to cells containing unwanted variants, such as gain of 1q. QC and routine monitoring for chromosomal abnormalities is critical. In addition, if cells start misbehaving and growing faster or strangely it is definitely worth a check before spending any more precious time and money on experiments that could be thwarted. Finding an abnormality need no longer feel like the end of the world and performing genomic QC can be simplified and rapid. We can help QC and/or rescue your cell line, saving you from wasting months of research and preventing skewed data. https://lnkd.in/ehRAfUta #ipscs #celltherapy #qc #stemcells #drugdiscovery #cellbiology #cellandgenetherapy #differentiation #geneediting #celllinedevelopment

2024 is starting on an interesting note with another paper highlighting the importance of assessing iPSC cultures for genetic/genomic changes, understanding the implications of any changes, potential causes and when do they arise. TP53 mutations highlighted in the paper this week: https://lnkd.in/esXh8jsF No single assay can detect all the different changes and the volumes of data, informatics and data interpretation can be daunting. This is where the Cellected team can help and advise and, if your cell line has acquired an unwanted mosaic change, that’s what our RESCUE platform is for, to rescue the remaining normal cells of the population : https://lnkd.in/ehRAfUta #ipscs #stemcells #geneediting #celltherapy #celllinedevelopment #drugdiscovery #toxicology #qc #cellculture #cellbiology #cellandgenetherapy #cultivatedmeat

Thought-provoking and highly relevant review (https://lnkd.in/ejskCZGd) to start the new year focused on genomic abnormalities in iPSCs, in particular the 20q11.21 abnormality, found in over 20% of cell lines: -  Alteration to this region is also found in cancers - there is a lot that can be learned from cross-field analysis to help understand the impact in iPSCs (starting my career in cancer genomics, this is something I am particularly interested in 😊) - The importance of optimising culture conditions to minimise the risk of developing alterations but also regularly testing to identify if/when changes occur - The range of technologies for testing and their advantages and disadvantages with regards to sensitivity, specificity, turnaround time and cost.  There is no one size fits all and is highly dependent on the lab, budget, speed, complexity of analysis and what the ultimate purpose of the cell line is - What do you do if you find your cell line has an abnormality? Are they destined for the clinical waste or can you eliminate the abnormal cells and retain the healthy population? The ending point here is exactly why we developed the RESCUE platform to take cell lines with any mosaic abnormality, mutation or unwanted genetic change and recover them: -  Improve the reproducibility, reliability, consistency of data, as highlighted by the ISSCR standards initiative (https://lnkd.in/ehcFMsCc) -  Ensure your results are relevant and not influenced or impacted by alterations to the cells -  iPSCs are not cheap to culture and take a lot of time. Putting them in the clinical waste and starting again is a miserable thought for labs! Don’t be afraid to test your cell lines (or get Cellected to!), options are available to recover problem cell lines 😊 (https://lnkd.in/ehRAfUta)

The Cellected team has been working hard and listening hard over the past year, super excited to share our new website and new innovative services launch! https://cellected.com/ R&R for iPSC scientists 😊 RIQUEST & RESCUE #ipscs #celltherapy #drugdiscovery #regenerativemedicine #cellculture #qc

Looking forward to attending tomorrow!

Looking forward to heading home to Liverpool next week for the ELRIG Drug Discovery meeting! I will be there with Rosa Loffredo, please do reach out and let us know if you would like to catch-up during the conference. We will also have a couple of posters that showcase the wonderful work we do at Cellected, thanks to past and present team members Phoebe Elvin and Issy Todd for their hard work! 🙂 #ipsc #hiPSC #stemcells #drugdiscovery #ELRIG #drugdiscovery2023 #DD23 #celltherapy #geneediting #celllinedevelopment #quality