New technology enables faster, more efficient cell harvest: Cell therapy meeting study

East Hills, NY - - A new, transformative filtration-based technology for the isolation and enrichment of cells, a critical first step in the development of therapies to repair or replace diseased or damaged tissues and organs, was found to be more efficient and faster than traditional technology used for cell separation. These findings were presented today at the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) annual meeting in Berlin, Germany. The Pall Corporation (NYSE: PLL) Filter Harvest System was found to have the potential to become a valuable tool to help realize the promise of regenerative medicine, a field that scientists believe could produce significant breakthroughs in the treatment of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, bone injury and many other acute and chronic conditions.
Lisa Bradbury, Ph.D., Director, R&D Cell Therapy, Pall Life Sciences, presented data comparing the Pall Filter Harvest System to a traditional open-system, density gradient, centrifuge-based method for isolation of mononuclear cells (MNC) from whole blood. The Pall Filter Harvest System was found to significantly reduce processing time; it can be performed in less than 15 minutes compared to an average processing time of about 2.5 to 4 hours with the Ficoll gradient technique. The Filter Harvest System also exhibited higher yield of MNCs for significantly better recovery (60 to 95 percent) than the Ficoll method.
The Pall Filter Harvest system can be used as a closed system that adheres to Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP), furthering the ability to comply with increasingly stringent regulations for safe, reproducible and efficacious cell products. In addition to rapid processing, the Pall system can be performed at point of use (operating room). It does not require the addition of laboratory equipment or trained technicians, as the method is easy to learn and use.
"Researchers and companies working in cell therapy expressed the need to find better and easier ways to isolate and enrich cells that result in higher cell yield, faster processing time, ease of use and are also more likely to meet future regulatory requirements," stated Judy Angelbeck, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Pall New Technologies. "Pall was able to translate its material science expertise on the interactions between media and cells based on our long-standing leadership in blood filtration to develop this new approach to cell harvesting."
The Pall system can be used to harvest cells from a broad range of biological samples including peripheral blood, bone marrow and umbilical cord blood. The Company is currently working with several companies in applying its filter harvest system to the development of innovative cell-based therapies in a variety of therapeutic areas, including orthopedics.
"We are pleased that Pall technology can play a key role in the revolutionary advances now occurring in medicine by providing researchers with the tools to take novel cell therapies from the laboratory into the clinic, as part of our goal to make cell therapy safe, routine and simple," Dr. Angelbeck added.
Regenerative medicine, which includes cell therapy, is a promising area of scientific research with application in the treatment and cure of a rapidly expanding list of diseases and injuries. Scientists believe cell-based therapies could be used to repair damaged heart muscle following a heart attack, replace skin for burn victims, restore movement after a spinal cord injury and regenerate pancreatic tissue to produce insulin for people with diabetes. Regenerative medicine promises to improve health and quality of life by supporting and activating the body's natural healing abilities.

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