Grant: Project Grant

Regenerative medicine is a rapidly growing billion-dollar multidisciplinary field at the intersection of medicine, engineering and science. It aims to create living, functional tissues that can repair or replace damaged, diseased or aging tissues or organs, as well as providing models for discovery and drug development. Stem cells are critical to the success of regenerative medicine therapies. Pluripotent stem cells are a unique adult-derived stem cell that can be used for both personalized and population therapies, but technologies are needed to bridge the gap between fundamental biology and clinical applications. One of the major obstacles preventing effective use of stem cells is the limited number of available donor cells, and the small-scale, labour-intensive methods for culturing and differentiating them. Stirred suspension bioreactors are emerging as a critical cornerstone of robust bioprocesses to generate sufficient numbers of stem cells and their differentiated progeny for multiple applications. However, there is a significant gap in our knowledge of how the dynamic environment in the bioreactor affects the quality of the final cell product. More specifically, cell metabolism, which can change greatly between stem cells and their differentiated daughter cells, can be modulated within the stirred suspension bioreactor environment. The overall goals of the research project are to a) develop a deeper understanding of the metabolic behaviour of human pluripotent stem cells in bioreactors, b) relate metabolism to the dynamic environment within the bioreactor through computer modeling approaches. The outputs of this research are essential for efficient, cost-effective, safe and reproducible cell manufacturing, which is a critical next step to precision treatments for conditions such as degenerative diseases, burns, fractures, and other ailments. This is an opportunity for Canada to be a leader in biomanufacturing for the regenerative medicine industry.