Testimonials from from Leading Research Institutions
“... biologists starting to explore the merits of culturing cells in three dimensions (3-D)... have been stunned by the difference that it makes to the way the cells behave, which is much closer to their behaviour in vivo... any biologist studying a system where the microstructure environment is important in vivo... will have to bid the Petri dish farewell in the next decade if they are to continue being taken seriously.”
—Editors, “Goodbye, Flat Biology?,” Nature, Vol 424, 21 August 2003, pg 861
ANGIOGENESIS, CARDIOMYOCYTE & ENDOTHELIAL CO-CULTURES
"Self-assembling peptides have enabled defined 2D and 3D cell cultures of a broad range of vascular cell types. Our lab believes that this family of self-assembling peptide scaffolds will have utility in furthering the understanding of blood vessel formation and angiogenesis by providing a model that resembles the in vivo processes more closely, as shown by the decreased cell apoptosis, increased formation of capillary-like networks and the increased production of VEGF mRNA, as compared with other 3D models such as collagen I gel or Matrigel.”
—Daria A. Narmoneva, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Cincinnati
Formerly Research Fellow with Richard T. Lee, MD, Harvard Medical School
DEFINED 3-D EPITHELIAL CELL CULTURE MICROENVIRONMENTS, CANCER BIOLOGY
“Three-dimensional assays have emerged as an important technique for the investigation of cancer genes in a biologically relevant context. However, 3D culture assays currently require the use of biological compounds such as collagen or EHS, which exhibit lot-to-lot variation. Hence, our lab has placed a high priority on creating defined reproducible three dimensional culture assays using PuraMatrix. The growth of epithelial cells on a chemically defined matrix, like PuraMatrix, will revolutionize how such 3D assays are conducted and will become a critical component of this increasing popular technique.”
—Jayanta Debnath, M.D., Associate Professor, UCSF
Formerly Research Fellow with Joan Brugge Lab, Harvard Medical School
MESENCHYMAL STEM CELL DIFFERENTIATION, CARTILAGE ENGINEERING, ECM DEPOSITION
"My work at the NIH and UPenn have focused on the use of mesenchymal stem cells, chondrocytes, and meniscus cells for the bioproduction of tissue engineered constructs. Our published work has demonstrated that culturing human mesenchymal stem cells in PuraMatrix results in high cell viability, controlled differentiation towards the chondrocyte phenotype, and abundant extracellular matrix gene expression and deposition. This growth has resulted in constructs with markedly increased mechanical strength over time in culture.
This body of work suggests that PuraMatrix holds potential as an ideal synthetic biomimetic nanofibrous scaffold for clinically- focused tissue engineering and osteochondral graft integration."
—Robert Mauck, PhD, Associate Professor, UPenn
Formerly with Rocky Tuan's NIAMS NIH Cartilage Biology Lab
IMPROVED HEPATOCYTE P450 FUNCTION COMPARED TO MATRIGEL AND COLLAGEN SANDWICH
"Culturing hepatocytes on the synthetic hydrogel PuraMatrix led to formation of spheroids which recovered liver-specific functions such as urea and albumin synthesis more quickly, and exhibited higher cytochorome P450 function compared to the collagen sandwich method (up to 3 weeks). The 3-dimensional cell structures were formed by straightforward plating on top of the PuraMatrix and cells could be easily analyzed by immunofluorescent staining and biochemical methods. We feel that PuraMatrix provides a defined substrate for improved hepatocyte culture that resembles in vivo processes more closely."
-- Deepak Nagrath Ph.D., Sihong Wong Ph.D., Martin Yarmush M.D.
Yarmush Lab, Harvard Medical School
CANCER BIOLOGY 3-D CELL CULTURE MODELS
“Our lab has placed a high priority on creating defined reproducible in vivo-like cell-based assays which can distinguish normal and malignant breast epithelial cells and PuraMatrix has worked well to recapitulate most of these phenotypic distinctions.”
—Connie Myers, PhD, Mina Bissell PhD, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs
CANCER PROLIFERATION ASSAYS
“PuraMatrix has worked very well, allowing our lab to create defined cancer proliferation assays and forming 3-D structures over a 14 day period.”
—Margaret Ptaszynska, MD, Lance Liotta Lab, National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research
UNCULTIVABLE BACTERIA, DNA RECOVERY & ANALYSIS
“PuraMatrix has worked well in the Duncan lab for cultivating uncultivable bacteria. The 3-D cell structure formation, clear visualization, and molecular biology testing have shown that this is the best system to use for culturing bacteria which were previously uncultivable. The easy recovery of the cells and DNA is also an added bonus.”
—Afshin Beheshti, PhD, The Forsyth Institute, Harvard University