Research into stem cells!

Yokogawa Solution Service Corporation announces that it will join the Smart Cell Processing project, a joint undertaking of industrial, administrative, and academic organisations in Japan and Britain that is being led by Tokyo Electron Limited, and will work with Tokyo Electron to develop a total quality management system for the automated production of stem cells that will be used in regenerative medicine.

Tokyo Electron has established the Stem Cell Technology Centre (STC) in Britain and is working with 15 technology partners to establish and standardise smart cell processing technologies for cultivating and inspecting stem cells of clinical quality. For this purpose, a manufacturing control system is needed that can control cell quality during the automatic cultivation process. Leveraging its solid track record and experience with manufacturing control applications in the pharmaceutical industry, Yokogawa will develop a complete stem cell production quality management solution that will also control logistics and function as a manufacturing execution system (MES) and plant information management system (PIMS).

Based on CIMVisionPharms, a pharmaceutical manufacturing control package, and CellBrain(TM), an online semiconductor manufacturing controller, this system will satisfy the specific requirements of stem cell production. To develop this management system, Yokogawa will make use of a fully-automatic cell culture and inspection apparatus that Tokyo Electron plans to install at the STC. Yokogawa will share information on its activities with the STC technology partners.

In line with the dramatic progress that is being achieved in iPS and ES cell research, expectations are rising that regenerative medicine is going to be a true game changer in the medical field. For the benefits of regenerative medicine to become widely available, progress must be achieved in the development of smart cell processing technologies and the establishment of stem cell production facilities. Yokogawa control and measurement technologies are used in a wide range of industries, and are helping achieve advances in biotechnology, regenerative medicine, and biomedicine. Yokogawa plans to capitalise on this joint development opportunity with Tokyo Electron to expand its business in these fields.