Biomedical engineers at UNSW who made a major discovery about creating blood stem cells without live embryos are continuing their quest to assist cutting-edge cell and gene therapy treatments.
In 2022, researchers from the UNSW School of Biomedical Engineering demonstrated how making a simulated embryo heart with a ‘microfluidic’ device (often referred to as a ‘lab on a tiny chip’ made of materials like silicone and glass) led to the forming of precursor parts that make up blood stem cells.
The process also created tissue needed to transform these stem cells into the parts that make up our actual blood.
These precursor parts are referred to as ‘induced pluripotent stem cells’ and can be made without sacrificing embryos to acquire them. These stem cells can turn into things like white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets.
Human blood stem cells were recently grown in the lab for the first time ever by researchers in Melbourne this month.
This new research has discovered cell culture additives that increase the yield of blood stem cells, which restore human blood production in mice.
Back in 2022, in a study published in Cell Reports, lead author Dr Jingjing Li and fellow researchers described how their fake heart pumped blood stem cells produced from an embryonic stem cell line.
“We made a device mimicking the heart beating and the blood circulation and an orbital shaking system which causes shear stress – or friction – of the blood cells as they move through the device or around in a dish,” Dr Li said at the time.
This system of blood cell production, where white and red blood cells and platelets are made, is called ‘haematopoiesis’.
The device also created the tissue cells of the embryonic heart environment that are crucial to this process.
An aorta is needed to transform blood stem cells into those three key groups. This research showed that the stem cells and the cells lining the aorta are closely related.
“Blood stem cells used in transplantation require donors with the same tissue-type as the patient,” A/Prof. Nordon said.
“Manufacture of blood stem cells from pluripotent stem cell lines would solve this problem without the need for tissue-matched donors, providing a plentiful supply to treat blood cancers or genetic disease.”
Since then, the researchers are now focusing their efforts on developing a microfluidic bioreactor to manufacture cells for cell and gene therapies.
Like their 2022 study, their work hopes to solve key medical challenges like donor blood stem cell shortages, the rejection of donor tissue cells, and ethical issues surrounding the use of IVF embryos.
They hope this new work with bioreactors will reduce costs for life-saving therapies that are currently very expensive for healthcare providers.
“The biopharmaceutical industry has traditionally relied on large-scale fermenters, which can generate thousands of doses per production run,” A/Prof. Nordon said.
"However, the roll-out of cell and gene therapies has been hindered by high labour costs and capacity constraints. Each production run must be individualised using cells from the patient or a suitable donor.
“Our microfluidic bioreactor, however, offers a promising solution to these challenges, with its potential to automate and integrate cell manufacturing steps, thereby reducing costs and increasing production capacity.”
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