Merck Millipore and PharmaCell agree cell production alliance

Merck Millipore has announced a new collaboration with PharmaCell to produce protocols and methods for efficient expansion, harvesting and use of HepaRG cells for healthcare applications.

The large-scale alliance will utilise Merck Millipore's Mobius bioreactor platform to step up the industrial production of human cells for the Balance project, which aims to create bioartificial livers.

Typically, such cells have been manufactured in multi-layer flasks, but bioreactors can be used to greatly expand production in a way that facilitates the safe and effective delivery of cell-based therapies.

It is expected that this collaboration will deliver scalable expansion and harvesting devices, validation methods and associated protocols for the production of stem cell therapies on an industrial scale.

Robert Shaw, commercial director of Merck Millipore's Stem Cell Initiative, said: "The ability to ensure that a population of cells can be reproducibly produced in a manner that can be validated is critical to the success of clinical applications."

Earlier this month, the firm launched its new Magna ChIP HiSens chromatin immunoprecipitation kits, for use in the enrichment and detection of chromatin-associated DNA.