Subscribe“Using Assay Ready cells from ECACC frees researchers to be able to screen 7 days per week.”
Cell cultures and cell derived products are increasingly used in the life sciences and are essential to applications such as high throughput screening, toxicology and other cell based assays. It is increasingly important that cells are delivered to the assays on time.
Cell Culture Supplies
For such assays to perform to specification and to assure reproducibility it is necessary that all of the reagents and start materials are standardised and quality assured. The supply of cell cultures can be a drain on valuable resources and is often fraught with risk that can lead to delay in project delivery. Often companies resort to diverting resource from research programmes or investing in costly robotic systems to satisfy their cell demand. ECACC offers an alternative. ECACC can help its customers manage cell culture in the laboratory, offer training and providing customers with an outsource partner.
Drawing on over 20 year's of banking and cryopreservation of animal cells ECACC can supply frozen "Assay Ready cells" to support entire programmes of work, either from our collection or cell lines provided by customers. Using Assay Ready cells from ECACC frees researchers to be able to screen 7 days per week if required, reduces the need for continual cell cultures and compresses timelines. Producing cells to specification and deadline is ECACC's core business, reducing risk to client's operations and saving them money.
ECACC's services are not limited to cell based assay support
Our scientists will discuss the best ways in which they can work with their clients to support their research and development programmes. ECACC offers advice and consultancy on the following:
- Cell culture facility set-up. Assistance in laboratory design, suggested hardware, materials, workflows and assistance drafting User Requirements Specifications. Technical audits of processes and facilities with a follow-up report.
- Cell culture process trouble-shooting and development. Identification of potential problems by visit, discussion and suggested corrective actions. The piloting and development of processes at ECACC or in your own labs. Hand-on help from ECACC staff to assist with expediting and running cell culture processes.
- Scale-up. Recommendations on courses of action and suggestions for choices of suitable equipment.
- Quality and lab safety issues. ECACC can help establish laboratory quality documentation systems and give guidance and assistance in the drafting of policy documents, SOPs and Risk assessments.
- Inventory management. Since its inception ECACC has seen its cryo-preserved stock rise from a few hundred cell lines stored in one liquid nitrogen tank to viable stock of nearly 100,000 different cell lines in the form of approximately one million cryovials held in over forty liquid nitrogen storage vessels. ECACC can put the experience ECACC has acquired through the successful management of our frozen ampoules to assist you rationalise your cryo-preserved inventory both in terms of the physical handling of the stock and the data tracking systems involved in storage and recovery
In terms of services and capability ECACC also offers
- Training Courses: ECACC offers a range of theoretical and practical based cell culture courses which can either be presented at HPA Porton or at a site of choice. The courses are flexible and through discussion ECACC can tailor courses to meet specific needs.
- Cell analysis. When working with cell lines it is vitally important to define cell growth characteristics, something that is often overlooked when timescales are short. ECACC can combine the "hands-on" experience of senior cell culture scientists with microscopy and flow cytometry to profile and optimise cell growth and map cell phenotype.
- Cell Growth Systems and Scale-up. Our experience and capability for cell culture spans hundreds of different cell types and many different technologies including standard "T" flasks, roller bottles (attached and suspended cells), stirred flasks, cell factories (Nunc™), shake flasks, stirred tank and fixed bed bioreactors.
- Quality Assured Contract Cell Banking. From small cell banks from sources of unknown provenance in quarantine conditions to 200 ampoule banks produced in "high specification" conditions, Master, Working and Assay Cell banks can be provided with end-user defined fills (e.g. 107 cells per ampoule).
- Animal cell membrane preparations.
- Serum-Free Adaptation and Banking. The demand for serum free cultures is increasing. However, the route to serum free adapted lines is often laborious and risky. Reduce risk and costs by letting ECACC carry out your adaptation and subsequent generation of assured banks of the adapted cell line.
- Tissue Processing and Establishment of Cryo-preserved Tissue Digests and Primary Cultures. If primary cell cultures are required ECACC can generate them from your donor tissue and lay down quality assured cell banks.
- Scale-Up for Cell Products: (DNA, RNA, protein, sub-cellular fractions e.g. membranes) including state of the art, high throughput, automated Nucleic Acid extraction, quantification, normalisation and presentation in a variety of formats.
- Quality testing of cell lines: cell line verification, mycoplasma and bacteria and fungi testing to "in house" or to FDA guidelines.
As a strategic business unit within the Health Protection Agency at Porton Down, ECACC offers secure premises providing the ideal independent site for the storage of valuable cell stocks. ECACC can provide a secure second site at which cells can be safely stored. Alternatively ECACC can help rationalise customer's cryo-preserved inventory, freeing up valuable space, increasing efficiency and confidence when it comes to sample retrieval.
ECACC is also a registered International Depository Authority (IDA) under the Budapest Treaty for the acceptance of cell cultures, viruses and DNA for Patent purposes.