Label-free sorting

Label-free sorting of stromal cell preparations for clinical use

Lead: Region Skåne/Lunds Universitet

Involved partners: Umeå University, Västerbottens läns landsting, Cytiva AB, Acousort AB

Publication from this project;

”Statistic estimation of cell compressibility based on acoustophoretic separation data”

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10404-020-02360-4

”Acoustophoresis Enables the Label‐Free Separation of Functionally Different Subsets of Cultured Bone Marrow Stromal Cells”

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cyto.a.24171

“Label-free sorting of stromal cell preparations for clinical use”

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cyto.a.24171

The project aims to develop novel, ultrasound-based cell sorting technologies (acoustophoresis) for gentle and effective processing of heterogeneous stroma cell preparations.

Examples of tasks and actions:

Acoustic cell sorting allows to enrich cells with defined acoustophysical properties from a mixture of different cell types without using antibody labelling. The so-called “vascular stroma fraction” from fat and the bone marrow stroma cells are examples for tissues that contain different cell types that need to be isolated before being used in cell therapy applications. Among other important cell types, stromal cell preparations contain multipotent stem and progenitor cells, which can differentiate in various tissues and also suppress immune reactions. These high-potential cells will be isolated from primary as well as cultured stroma cell preparations and will then be characterized for phenotype and function using state-of-the-art in-vitro as well as in-vivo methods.

Interview with project leader

Hi Stefan Scheding!

What is the need your project addresses?

Current and future advanced cell therapies require effective cell processing methods to generate the optimum starting material for the production of advanced therapies and also to enrich for the most potent cells from mixed cell products.

What is your approach to meet the need?

We approach this need by establishing acoustic sorting (acoustophoresis) using stromal cells as an example. Acoustic sorting is gentle to the cells and does not require any labelling, which of course is an advantage compared to other methods.

How will this improve Sweden´s capabilities within ATMPs?

Effective cell processing technologies can be used to optimize a variety of cell preparations for the production of advanced cell-based drugs. In addition to stromal cell products, this method can for example also be used to enrich different blood cells for generation of next generation immune therapies. This Sweden-based technology has therefore the potential to become an integral part in future ATMP development.

For more information please contact Stefan Scheding