SurModics And Donaldson Company Announce Introduction Of The First Jointly Developed Nanofiber Cell Culture Product
New Synthetic ECM Mimics 3-D Cell Growth in Body
Minneapolis - SurModics, Inc., a provider of surface modification and drug delivery technologies to the healthcare industry, and Donaldson Company, Inc., a manufacturer of filtration systems, announced today the introduction of jointly developed Ultra-Web Synthetic ECM (extracellular matrix) surfaces for cell culture as a research product.
The product line is the result of the relationship the two companies announced in May 2005. The companies combined Donaldson's nanofiber technology and SurModics' surface modification technology to create synthetic nanofibrillar cell culture products. The new products are meant to improve cell culture, cell-based bioassays and other in vitro (laboratory-based) cell-related applications.
Using nano-scale structure and relevant surface chemistry, the new surface coated Ultra-Web Synthetic ECM products mimic cell growth conditions that more closely resemble those found in the body (in vivo). Following extensive third-party evaluation, Donaldson and SurModics have demonstrated that this new product provides enhanced cell culture results and more in vivo-like cell behavior with certain cells and cell types. Field tests also have shown that the new Ultra-Web Synthetic ECM provides superior performance compared to variable biological matrices and hydrogels.
"We are excited that Donaldson and SurModics have successfully developed and introduced the first joint product, only eight months after our two companies entered into the development partnership," said Bruce Barclay, President and CEO of SurModics. "This new product speaks to the excellent working relationship between our companies, and is the first of many exciting products we plan to introduce."
Added Jim Giertz, Donaldson's Senior Vice President, Commercial and Industrial: "We are pleased to be leveraging our proprietary nanofiber expertise into the cell culture industry with an excellent partner like SurModics. We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with SurModics to explore the full potential of the combined technologies and develop an extensive portfolio of products that will offer significant enhancements for cell culture research and applications."
Ongoing research done in collaboration with Dr. Sally Meiners and her co-workers at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Dr. Melvin Schindler, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, demonstrates that this new product may have important applications for use in basic research and cell-based high throughput screening (HTS) for the discovery and development of new drug compounds.
"We have demonstrated that this new product provides significant enhancement in our cell culture research," said Dr. Schindler. "For example, Dr. Meiner's paper, which was published in the Journal of Biomedical Research in January 2006, reports the significant increase in neurite outgrowth for many types of primary neuronal cells using the Donaldson-SurModics product when compared to existing cell culture technologies. We demonstrated the advantage of one of the unique features of this product - that one can attach biologically active peptides to the nanofibrillar surface to elicit desirable cell behavior and functions. We are actively exploring various applications of this new product to achieve improved cell culture results, and as a platform to build cell culture "tool kits" to promote the appropriate biological response for various cell types."
SOURCE: SurModics, Inc. and Donaldson Company