Improved Cell Culture Media for the Derivation and Maintenance of Murine Embryonic Stem Cells

Background & Unmet Need

• Cell culture media are vital for the maintenance and derivation of stem cells
• Current state of the art cell culture media, two inhibitor/LIF (2i/LIF), do not enable long term culture of murine embryonic stem cells (mESCs)
• Prolonged culture of mESCs in current media compositions result in aneuploidy, lost DNA methylation, impaired developmental potential, and the inability to derive fully potent female mESCs
• Unmet Need: A serum-free mESC 2i/LIF cell culture media that maintains the genomic stability and developmental potency of mESCs over long term culture

Technology Overview

• The Technology: Novel serum-free cell culture media that improves genomic stability and promotes full potency in mESCs, and the mESCs that are derived using it
• The Discovery: Lipid supplementation to 2i/LIF cell culture media results positive long term culture outcomes in mESCs
• PoC Data: This media reduces the incidence of abnormal numbers of chromosomes, preserves DNA methylation, maintains mESC developmental potential, and allows the derivation of fully potent female mESCs through preservation of X-chromosomes beyond 40 cell passages
• mESCs cultured in this media can be used to produce fertile all-ESC adults, providing a platform that is readily available for the development of specific genetic lines for R&D of various therapeutics

Technology Applications

• mESC expansion and differentiation for cell therapeutics
• mESC differentiation into organoids for pharmaceutical development and testing
• Genetic manipulation of mESC lines and mouse model constructs for pharmaceutical development and testing

Technology Advantages

• Promotes long term genomic stability and full potency maintenance for mESCs in both sexes and non-permissive strains
• Supports de novo derivation of mESCs from both male and female blastocysts
• Maintains mESCs in naive or formative pluripotent states