With SG Austria’s ‘Proof-of-Concept’ Encapsulation Service, you provide us with your cells or bacteria and within 2-4 months you will receive back your Cell-in-a-Box™ or Bac-in-a-Box™ product ready for further testing or use.
SG Austria also has a fully functional molecular biology lab and on-site access to small and large animal facilities, so you may chose to let us undertake further development and testing of your encapsulated cell product after the initial proof of concept phase e.g. release of biomolecules, pre-clinical studies.
Typically a Proof of Concept project would run as follows:
We receive and culture your proprietary cells or bacteria
- ~ we use the same media and plasticware as you
~ we document all steps and show that the cells behave the same under our care as in the original laboratory (this can be especially important for our stem cell customers)- We expand your cells to sufficient quantities for encapsulation
- ~ timing here depends on the characteristics of your cells
- First encapsulation
- ~ using our expertise and experience from many different cell types we will chose an encapsulation parameter to suit your cells
- Encapsulated cells are monitored as they grow over the next period – typically for 3-4 weeks
- ~ we call this “maturation”: cell growth, viability and metabolic activity are accurately measured and recorded at regular intervals
~ the overall time of assessment will be dependent on your individual requirements and applications - The results from the encapsulation process and the monitoring phase will allow us to identify the optimal conditions; it may be necessary to do a second encapsulation to verify that the complete process has been optimised.
- The final Cell-in-a-Box™ or Bac-in-a-Box™ potential product is now ready for further testing
- ~ testing and development can be done at SG Austria OR we can ship the capsules back to you either at room temperature or frozen on dry ice for you to continue the work
Note:
- 90% of all cell types we have ever tested have conform to the above scheme.
- 10% of cell types can prove more complex to encapsulate but we have never encountered a cell type which we could not successfully encapsulate after optimisation.
