Invitrogen Launches Animal Origin Free Substrate for Stem Cells

Invitrogen Corporation has announced the launch of CELLstart™, the first fully defined, completely animal origin free substrate in the marketplace for the attachment and expansion of embryonic, mesenchymal and neural stem cells. CELLstart™ provides the serum-free and feeder-free scaffold upon which stem cells grow in both research and therapy applications.

“Most substrates today are either of animal origin, are highly variable, or do not support stem cell growth. Researchers need a substrate to provide consistent culture performance, lot to lot, in their move towards using animal origin free products,” said Joydeep Goswami, vice president, stem cells and regenerative medicine.

“Using CELLstart™, we have grown stem cells in an undifferentiated state, in a serum-free, feeder-free environment over multiple passages,” he added.

According to Invitrogen, CELLstart™ maintains the stem cell characteristics and differentiation capability of human embryonic stem cells, mesenchymal and neural stem cells. CELLstart™ requires researchers to go through minimal or no changes in processes from current culture methods.