The microfluidic chip according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a plate, a bridge channel formed in intaglio on one side of the plate, an inlet formed through the plate to communicate with one end of the bridge channel, an outlet formed through the plate to communicate with the other end of the bridge channel, and at least one well extending in an outward direction of the plate from the bridge channel to provide a space, wherein the bridge channel may be in the form of a curved line, a bent line, an arc, a circle, a spiral, or a polygon.

A microfluidic device in which microfluidic channels are embedded in a culture medium chamber and have open sides. The microfluidic device is patterned with a fluid moved along a hydrophilic surface due to capillary force, and the fluid may be rapidly and uniformly patterned along an inner corner path and a microfluidic channel. In the microfluidic device, the microfluidic channel is connected to facilitate fluid flow with a culture medium through open sides thereof and openings, and thus may provide a cell culture environment in which high gas saturation is maintained. In addition, several microfluidic devices formed on one common substrate are described. Such microfluidic devices may be manufactured of a hydrophilic engineering plastic by injection molding.

The present invention relates to a preparation method of a spheroid using human-derived cardiac stem cells and a therapeutic use for ischemic heart disease using the myocardial regeneration effect thereof. The spheroid using the cardiac stem cells provided in the present invention has excellent myocardial differentiation ability and regenerative therapeutic ability as compared to existing cardiac stem cells, and thus may be used for the treatment of ischemic heart disease such as myocardial infarction.

A cell culture matrix is provided that has a substrate with a first side, a second side opposite the first side, a thickness separating the first side and the second side, and a plurality of openings formed in the substrate and passing through the thickness of the substrate. The plurality of openings allow flow of at least one of cell culture media, cells, or cell products through the thickness of the substrate, and provides a uniform, efficient, and scalable matrix for cell seeding, proliferation, and culturing. The substrate can be formed from a woven polymer mesh material that provides a high surface area to volume ratio for cells and good fluid flow through the matrix. Bioreactor systems incorporating the cell culture matrix and related methods are also provided.

Micro-Organosphers, including Patient-Derived Micro-Organospheres (PMOSs), apparatuses and methods of making them, and apparatuses and methods of using them. Also described herein are methods and systems for screening a patient using these Patient-Derived Micro-Organospheres, including personalized therapies.

The present invention relates generally to a three-dimensional cell and tissue culture system for the female reproductive tract. In particular provided herein the system includes individual female reproductive cultures in a dynamic microfluidic setting or integrated using a microfluidic microphysiologic system. In some embodiments, the present invention provides ex-vivo female reproductive tract integration in a three dimensional (3D) microphysiologic system.

An object of the present invention is to provide a human astrocyte cell population that is differentiated from astrocyte progenitor cells derived from human iPS cells, a manufacturing method for the human astrocyte cell population; and an evaluation method for a test substance using the human astrocyte cell population. According to the present invention, there is provided a human astrocyte cell population that is differentiated from astrocyte progenitor cells derived from human iPS cells, the human astrocyte cell population including at least 90% of human astrocytes, in which in the human astrocytes, a) CDKN2A is positive, b) at least one gene marker selected from the group consisting of IGFBP5, NNMT, HLA-DRB1, and HLA-DRB5 is positive, and c) an expression level of C3, which is standardized with GAPDH of a reference gene, is 0.05 copies/copies or less.

The invention provides a method for constructing a hepatic progenitor cell-like cell bank, including successively performing following processes to human primary hepatocyte cultures from different donor sources: transformation-culture, cryopreservation treatment, proliferation-culture, a first subculture treatment, virus infection, a second subculture treatment, continuous selection-culture and continuous subculture. In the method for constructing a heterogenous immortal hepatic progenitor cell-like cell bank of the present invention, the human primary hepatocyte culture of each of the donor sources is transformation-cultured before the proliferation-culture, which is beneficial in endowing the human primary hepatocyte cultures with good proliferation performance. Once combined with subsequent controlling of culture parameter, the immortal hepatic progenitor cell-like cell lines obtained from different donor sources may have good in vitro proliferation ability. The invention also provides an application of the hepatic progenitor cell-like cell bank and cell lines obtained by the construction method.

A cell culture system is provided that includes a cell culture vessel having an interior cavity to house a cell culture substrate in a cell culture space, and at least one port for at least one of fluid inlet to the interior cavity and fluid outlet from the interior cavity. The system further includes a piston having a distal end disposed in the cell culture vessel above the cell culture space, the distal end of the piston being sealed with an airtight seal within the interior cavity. The system also includes a driver coupled to the piston to move the piston so as to increase and decrease a distance between the distal end and the cell culture space. The driver can pressurize the interior cavity via actuation of the piston to harvest cells from the cell culture space through the at least one port.

Provided is a method for freezing a cell aggregate including neural cells. Provided is a method for freezing a cell aggregate including neural cells and having a three-dimensional structure, which comprises following steps (1) and (2): (1) soaking the cell aggregate including neural cells in a cryopreservation solution at 0° C. to 30° C. prior to freezing to prepare a cryopreservation solution-soaked cell aggregate; and (2) freezing the cell aggregate including neural cells in vapor phase of a liquid nitrogen container having a temperature of −150° C. or less.