Shibuya Kogyo offers cell culture and processing service in regenerative medicine
Will provide the service to hospitals, universities and research institutions
Shibuya Kogyo of Japan has established a Cell Culture and Processing Department at its Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Systems Division in Kanazawa Technology Park in Morimoto.
The department will provide cell culture and processing services to hospitals, universities and research institutions to support their research and development in regenerative medicine without the need to develop their own cell processing centre.
Shibuya has manufactured and installed a variety of aseptic systems and equipment for hospitals and universities, including cell culture isolators, robotic cell culture isolators, and 3D bio printers. The firm says the ability of these systems to undergo very high level disinfection and to operate without direct human intervention allows it to achieve unprecedented control over cell processing and culture with respect to both product quality and safety.
Shibuya says it will also work with Yamaguchi University in the creation of in vitro cell cultivation therapies for chronic liver disease.
Yamaguchi University has conducted clinical trials using Autologous Bone Marrow Cell infusion therapy (ABMi Therapy). This non-cell cultivation therapy requires about 400cc of bone marrow to be withdrawn from a hepatic cirrhosis patient under general anaesthesia, but because many patients with decompensated cirrhosis are not strong enough to withstand full anaesthesia, Yamaguchi University, using Shibuya's state-of-the-art aseptic technologies, developed this cell therapy whereby it is now possible to use only about 30cc of bone marrow, which can be taken from a patient using only local anaesthetic.
The bone marrow cells harvested from the patient are then expanded to a much more significant number of cells using cell culture under well controlled processing conditions.
The cultured bone marrow cells are evaluated for viability, quality and safety and then put back into the patient intravenously.
The partners are now jointly conducting further development of cell culture methods using the combination of robotics with advanced aseptic technology.
