CCS Cell Culture Service and Cytocentrics Agree Cooperation in the Field of Cell Line Development
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Biotechnology companies CCS Cell Culture Service GmbH and Cytocentrics AG has announced the signing of a research and license agreement. The aim of the cooperation is to develop electrophysiologically optimized ion channel cell lines which allow a reliable testing of substances and drugs.
The pharmaceutical industry depends on suitable in-vitro test methods for preclinical drug screening and safety pharmacology testing. Over recent years the automated patch clamp technology has established itself in this field. However, in many cases the application of conventional recombinant cell lines results in low data quality.
The cooperation paves the way for the production of cell lines generating reliable and reproducible data in automated patch clamp systems. CCS brings its expertise in the production of recombinant cell lines into this partnership and Cytocentrics will focus on electrophysiological optimization.
"Combining the core competences of both companies will set new standards in the development of new drugs", explains Dr. Oliver Klotzsche, managing director and co-founder of the CCS Cell Culture Service GmbH. "Both companies have very high quality standards. The long experience of both companies allows professional work to be carried out in compliance with the high standards required by the pharmaceutical industry".
In detail the cooperation agreement comprises the production and optimization of cell lines expressing pharmacologically relevant ion channels. The first two cell lines hERG-HEK 293 and hNav1.5-CHO have recently become available for purchase.
“In our service sector for safety pharmacology testing, we are already successfully using cell lines which have been jointly developed", explains Dr. Christa Nutzhorn, President of Cytocentrics AG. “Customers from the pharmaceutical industry sector are completely satisfied with the high quality of measuring data."
Each batch of cells is subjected to quality controls prior to delivery. Quality standards refer to the seal rate, rate of whole-cell recordings, stability and existence of a homogenous flow. Customers can either acquire a license for a cell line or order so-called "Instant Cells", rendering unnecessary the time consuming cultivation of cells. These cells are ready-to-use in an assay within 15 minutes after defrosting.
