Cronus Comments
QUANTITATIVE IMAGING: AN ESSENTIAL DEVELOPMENT FOR THE QUALITY CONTROL OF HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS
Microscopy based fluorescent cytometry in the quality control of human embryonic stem cells.
Human embryonic stem (hES) cells are derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst and cultured in vitro. These cells can exist in an undifferentiated state and retain the ability to differentiate into cells from all three germ layers. This differentiation can occur spontaneously in culture or can be induced. Optimization of culture conditions, feeder cells, temperature and passaging technique can help to keep the cells in the undifferentiated state. The amount of differentiation in the culture is routinely evaluated simply on the morphology of the cells, but for quality control of the cultures, surface markers and transcription factors common to all embryonic stem cell lines can be used to identify undifferentiated cells…
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GELIFICATION – A NOVEL, EFFICIENT AND CONVENIENT MATRIX FOR MOLECULAR BIOLOGY REAGENTS
Gelification is a process where components of enzymatic reactions are stabilised at room temperature by the addition of different stabilising agents. This process does not alter protein structures, while interactions between reagents are avoided until the user activates the reaction. Gelification is neither a heat dessication, nor a lyophilisation, and is not based on amorphous matrixes such as agarose. It is a revolutionary chemical-physical process done at room temperature, which makes it so far economically the most cost competitive alternative for stabilisation molecular biology reagents.
The technology has been shown to function perfectly with fluorescent dyes typically used for Real Time DNA amplification, providing therefore an important support in stabilising highly complex and thermolabil reaction mixtures, facilitating in this way automation of diagnostic procedures, as well as allowing the development of easy to use systems. Other advantages encountered by the use of this technology, is the reduction of handling steps, significant time and cost savings, and most important for diagnostics, reduction to a minimum of cross-contaminations.