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StemBeads FGF2 Testimonials from Our Customers

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The video above provides some testimonials from StemCulture clients based on their use of our most popular products StemBeads FGF2.

StemBeads FGF2 is a revolutionary growth factor supplement that offers a more efficient way to grow FGF2 dependent stem cell cultures. Already verified in some of the top stem cell labs in the USA, this supplement delivers a steady release of growth factor into your media of choice creating a more stable environment allowing for:

  • Reduction of Media Changes
  • Significant Savings on Media Costs and Time
  • Better Quality Cultures by Reduction of Spontaneous Differentiation
  • Use of Your Favorite Media, No Change of Culture Conditions.

Note: **8uls of StemBeads are needed per 1 ml of growth media for a 10ng/mL FGF2 release**

Should you have questions about any of our products, feel free to contact us.

Media, Media, Media – Cell Culture Media, of Course

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When we are thirsty, nothing is better to me than an ice-cold glass of H20. Some people reach for something sweet, some like the carbonation, but us, we love the refreshing feel of ice-cold water. To each their own, right? Like all living things, cells need nourishment, and cell culture media is the stem cell culturevessel to this nourishment when cells are grown outside the body in a culture dish. Typically, media are water-based liquids that carry basic nutrients cells need to survive: salts, sugars, amino acids, proteins, etc. However, just as the water industry exploded with its various flavors of water, vitamin water, energy water, the cell culture media industry has exploded with so many different types and flavors—and that’s just for the basic cell culture media. [Read more…]

StemBeads FGF2 Trial Size Released

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In response to requests from our colleagues, we have released a trial size (1 mL) of
StemBeads FGF2.  Many stem cell scientists who engage in stem cell culture have asked us to StemBeads FGF2provide a smaller size of the StemBeads FGF2.  This smaller size allows for a laboratory to test out the product at minimal cost.

StemBeads FGF2 is a revolutionary growth factor supplement that offers a more efficient way to grow FGF2 dependent stem cell cultures. Already verified in some of the top stem cell labs in the United States, this supplement delivers a steady release of growth factor into your media of choice creating a more stable environment. This allows scientists to reduce the number of times they feed their cells from daily, to every 3rd day.

The Benefits of StemBeads FGF2

With regards to stem cell growth, StemBeads FGF2 provides the following benefits:

  • Reduction of Media Changes by (Saves you time)
  • Significant Savings on Media Costs (Saves you money)
  • Better Quality Cultures by Reduction of Spontaneous Differentiation (Facilitates better cells)
  • Use of Your Favorite Media, No Change of Culture Conditions

Please note that 8 uls of StemBeads FGF2 are needed per 1 ml of growth media.

The science behind StemBeads FGF2 has been published in PLOS ONE.  Feel free to contact us should you have additional questions with regard to the science behind StemBeads FGF2, or any other questions about our products.  It is our goal to make your research as a stem cell scientist easier, more enjoyable, and extremely successful.

Click here to order a trial size of StemBeads FGF2 and start saving money, saving time, and grow better cells.

Let it Bead,

StemCultures

Information for scientists by scientists on all things related to stem cell growth including stem cell culture, culture medium, tissue culture, fibroblast growth factor (FGF2) and more.

The 2013 NextGen Stem Cell Conference – Young Investigators Create a Mastermind of Stem Cell Knowledge

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The 2013 NextGen Stem Cell Conference was a huge success, based on the feedback we have received from attendees. Ruchi Bajpai, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Southern California, says, “What a great meeting!! It was an amazing opportunity to interact with all the movers and shakers of the future stem cell research.”

Like many conferences, based on the speaker’s reputations, we expected there to be very informative lectures on topics like stem cell growth factors, tissue culture, stem cell culture, fibroblast growth factor, fgf2, and more; however, what happened was different. What were slated to be lectures turned into discussions, and all of a sudden, there was a think tank of the brightest young investigators in the industry all in one place — sharing ideas, secrets, and strategies with respect to their research.

Drs. Justin Ichida, Paul Tesar, and Gabsang Lee talked about their latest research regarding the direct conversion of fibroblasts into different neural cell types. This technology bypasses the need to go through a pluripotent stem cell intermediate. Dr. Daylon James spoke about his work trying to make endothelial cells from human pluripotent stem cells with implications for cardiovascular disease. Finally, three of the most reputable stem cell cores—represented by their directors, Drs. Mark Tomishima (MSKCC), Sunita D’Souza (Mt. Sinai), and Laurence Daheron (Harvard)—spoke about the services of their cores and their opinions on the latest technologies, including iPSC reprogramming techniques.

In addition to the scientific sessions, there were also plenty of fun activities, especially the cocktail reception Wednesday evening that featured food stations from different countries around the world and plenty of beverages. We all enjoyed a 3 ½-hour open bar and watched the sun set over the 18th hole while everyone got to know each other. Overall, the networking opportunities were limitless.

Based on the feedback of attendees, the NextGen Stem Cell Conference will happen again next year at the same location. Details coming soon. Thank you to everyone who helped to make this event a success—we’ll see you there next year.

To Successful Research,
StemCultures

Information for scientists by scientists on all things related to stem cell growth including stem cell culture, culture medium, tissue culture, fibroblast growth factor (fgf2) and more.

Note: StemCultures facilitates posting on this blog, but the views and accounts expressed herein are those of the author(s) or interviewee(s) and not the views or accounts of StemCultures its officers or directors whose views and accounts may or may not be similar or identical. StemCultures, its officers and directors do not express any opinion regarding any product or service by virtue of reference to such product or service in this blog.

Smooth Edges in Stem Cell Culture

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This is a post by StemCultures CEO Jeffrey Stern PhD, MD.

When I think about the development of an organism, smooth edges, like the irresistible full folds and curves of a baby, come to mind. Throughout development, stem cells give rise first to the Smooth Edges in Stem Cell Cultureembryo, then later, through tissue-specific stem cells, to the final biological form, with naturally rounded shapes and few sharp edges. At the molecular level, I imagine similar changes—with gradual shifts in growth factors forming rolling gradients elastically linked to intrinsic gene regulation and protein expression. Over time and through evolution, the jagged peaks and shear faces of primitive organisms have been worn into smoother, more complex forms of life. As time softens sharp-edged mountain ranges into rounded, biologically complex environments, evolution shapes the sudden molecular and organismal changes that carve new pathways of development.

On the other hand, research seeks sharp, definitive, cut-and-dried explanations. Human nature seeks a clear path—with, when needed, stairs and a guide-rail—to follow. Indeed, the current revolution in stem cell science was enabled by the discovery of step-by-step protocols to expand cells without differentiation. Discoveries by pioneers such as Martin Evans, Irving Weissman, James Thomson, Benjamin Reubinoff, Rudolf Jaenisch, Shinya Yamanaka, Douglas Melton, and Austin Smith led to an understanding of the factors needed to maintain stem cells, providing the large quantities of cells needed for research and therapy. These pioneering results enable us to study stem cells and to discover just how complex the targeted biological processes are. As work progresses to refine protocols, they are beginning to evolve. Our recent work aims to mimic the more gradual changes, resembling environments encountered in normal development.

We’ve found that copying the normal developmental niche can have practical advantages, illustrated by our laboratory’s recent success using controlled levels of growth factor in stem cell cultures. Standard protocols add FGF2 daily in a step-wise fashion: suddenly via pipette, a bolus of this key growth factor is released onto the cells, causing a dramatic spike in levels. Surprisingly, half of the added FGF2 is lost in less than six hours, meaning there are extended periods of negligible FGF2 levels each day, followed by a sudden rise in concentration upon feeding. Using controlled-release to smooth these dramatic peaks and valleys results in more stem cells, increased stem markers, and decreased differentiation. The cells seem happier when these natural gradients replace sudden, dramatic changes in environment. For this discovery, like any other, it will take time to learn the full implications—but the philosophy of letting nature guide is one that we believe is worth following.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing below to our monthly newsletter through which we provide stem cell scientists information on the most current research topics and tools to help them constantly improve their stem cell culture experience.


Note: StemCultures facilitates posting on this blog, but the views and accounts expressed herein are those of the author(s) or interviewee(s) and not the views or accounts of StemCultures its officers or directors whose views and accounts may or may not be similar or identical. StemCultures, its officers and directors do not express any opinion regarding any product or service by virtue of reference to such product or service in this blog.

Dear Scientists: Change is good, we promise

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FGF2 Change is Good Today, many can’t even remember how we lived before all of current technology, but we can maybe remember our eagerness to try them out when they were first introduced. Of course there is a learning curve, but once you become familiar with anything, over time, the new way becomes as easy as the old way was before. In fact, it should get easier, as that’s what change should do.

Scientists are a different breed. We say we are open to change in our day-to-day research, but are we really? Try going into a lab and asking the scientists to try a new reagent out. We estimate 75% would say “Thanks but no thanks, we’re good with what we’re doing.” Why is that? Scientists operate by repetition. We tend to do whatever everyone else does and live by the motto if it’s broke, don’t fix it. During grad school and even while a post-doc, Many can’t be bothered to change things; they just didn’t have the time. However, some learn that changing things can actually save you time and make your life better. Here are three reasons for us scientists to be a bit more open to change in our research lives.

Efficiency.  New technology allows for the creation of new products that will let you get what you normally do, just so much faster. Case in point, the PCR machine. How slow would your day be if you couldn’t run a PCR? Now that’s a bit drastic, but it shows the point. New products should make your life easier, save you some time and headache. If this is part of their sales pitch, try it, as a few more hours or even days back in your life is a lot.

Money.  Plain and simple, experiments are expensive. Once again, as a graduate student and post-doc, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to this; I would just buy reagents and hope my boss OKed them later. Now, running my own lab, I pay close attention to the cost of reagents and materials and try to teach my lab members to do the same. After all, the funding rates are plummeting, and we need to stretch every dollar we can.

Improvements.  The ultimate reason to change to a new product is if it makes your experiments better. For example, if a typical yield of cells in a routine experiment is 30%, and a new product claims it can get that up to 75%, you should try to change. Sure 30% might work, but 75% obviously means you are doing something much better.

So if a new product will save you time and money and improve your output, changing over should be a no-brainer. A lot of new products don’t have all three of these qualities, and that makes it harder. Typically, new products might save you time and increase output but cost more than what you currently do. This might make it hard for you to change, or at least might make it hard for your boss to agree to change.

FGF2 Change is Good 2

Growing stem cells costs a lot money, and it’s a daily effort. Cell culture media has to be changed every day for some stem cell types, and even when researchers are doing this, the cells are imperfect, with a lot of room for improvement.  Knowing that scientists are hesitant to change, we wanted to fix this problem without drastically changing what scientists normally do. So, what is it we normally do? Every day, we refresh the media and a recombinant protein FGF2. FGF2 is essential for maintaining stem cells, and we found that it is incredibly unstable in culture and is the reason why stem cells tend to drift from their stem cell state. Changing the media every day is expensive, and that expense comes from the FGF2 and the cell culture media alone. One way we could have fixed this problem was to create a small molecule FGF2 mimic that would be more stable. Small molecules tend to be cheaper, and that would have achieved one of our goals, reducing cost. The problem there was that small molecules are very dirty and do not exist in nature. Asking a scientist to switch from protein to small molecule is a big change; we opted not to go this route.

The other option was to keep the protein FGF2, but to mutate it in a way that made it more stable. That would reduce the need to change the media so frequently. However, now we were asking scientist to change from a normal protein to a mutated one. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s a major change, and we know as well as anyone that scientists don’t like change. So our solution? …Don’t change anything. Let’s just put the normal protein FGF2 in a formulation that will constantly release it over time. Kind of like a protein IV for cells. When we did this, we found that researchers saved time, saved money, and best of all, the cells they were growing were more stem-like. The trifecta. Best of all, we didn’t really alter anything: scientists still use the same media and protein FGF2, they just use less of it and save money.

There are many people using these StemBeads and enjoying all the benefits. However, there are hundreds who are not, probably either because they are not aware of them or because they are hesitant to change what they normally do. I get it; I’ve been there. But a product that does all of those things comes around once in a while. Give StemBeads a shot; it might significantly change your research world. After all, change is good, especially when it puts more money into your pocket and more time back into your day.

Please consider subscribing below to our monthly newsletter through which we provide stem cell scientists information on the most current research topics and tools to help them constantly improve their stem cell culture experience.

To Successful Research,

StemCultures

Information for scientists by scientists on all things related to stem cell growth including stem cell culture, culture medium, tissue culture, fibroblast growth factor (fgf2) and more.

Note: StemCultures facilitates posting on this blog, but the views and accounts expressed herein are those of the author(s) or interviewee(s) and not the views or accounts of StemCultures its officers or directors whose views and accounts may or may not be similar or identical. StemCultures, its officers and directors do not express any opinion regarding any product or service by virtue of reference to such product or service in this blog.

StemBeads FGF2 is now a Peer Reviewed, Published Science

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StemBeads FGF2The science behind StemBeads FGF2, the novel product that provides researchers with a more efficient way to grow better stem cells is now published in the recent issue of PLOS ONE.  The study performed by a team of researchers at The Neural Stem Cell Institute led by myself highlights the instability of soluble FGF2 in cell culture, and how stabilization of FGF2 for an extended period of time greatly improves the quality of stem cell cultures.   Click here for a free copy of this published manuscript.  After you learn about this fantastic science, be sure to click on the StemBeads FGF2 product page for ordering information. [Read more…]

The “Ups and Downs” of FGF2 and Stem Cell Culture

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FGF2 and Stem Cell Culture Ups and DownsStem cells are unique in that they, like humans, possess the ability to choose.   “To be, or not to be,” is appropriate, as stem cells must decide if they want to maintain themselves as a stem cell, or turn into another cell type.  Just like us, many factors influence this decision, and one of the major ones is the protein fibroblast growth factor 2, also known as FGF2.  FGF2 eliminates this decision for stem cells, by forcing them to maintain the stem cell state.  In vivo, stem cells exist in a highly organized niche, where factors like FGF2 are maintained at constant levels to ensure stem cells are kept in the undifferentiated state.

In stem cell culture, there is tremendous value for keeping stem cells in the undifferentiated state.  The ability of stem cell to differentiate into multiple cell types is directly proportional to their level of “Stemness”.  The more undifferentiated stem cells are, the more efficient they will be in generating progeny.  In cell culture, scientists try to mimic the in vivo niche by adding soluble FGF2.   When FGF2 is not present or withdrawn from cell culture strategies, stem cells now are able to “think” and start differentiating into other cell types. In some paradigms, researchers add fresh FGF2 every day, that means coming on Saturdays and Sundays to just maintain adequate FGF2 levels.

Recently, data from our lab showed that adding FGF2 every day might not be enough.  When we looked at FGF2 levels in stem cell culture, after 10 hours in culture, no more FGF2 was left.  When we graphed this over the course of one week, FGF2 levels looked like a roller coaster ride, starting high, going low, then spiking back up, before rapidly decaying again.  This result was extremely interesting, and very important because it proved that the current standard stem cell culture techniques using FGF2 were far from optimal.  In any given 24-hour period, where stem cells are without FGF2 for greater than half that time, they start to drift away from the stem cell state and begin the differentiation process.

To address this problem, our group came up with a way to keep FGF2 levels stable for at least 3 days in culture.  When we did this, we found that stem cells were maintained better in the stem cell state, and eliminated some of that “drift” and spontaneous differentiation.  This new product, StemBeads FGF2 allows for a savings of time, money savings from the use of fewer media changes, and most importantly, facilitates the growth of better cells.

So, while a lot of us enjoy the ups and downs of a roller coaster ride to get our adrenaline pumping, ups and down of FGF2 levels in standard stem cell culture techniques are far from optimal, and a paradigm shift may be in order.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing below to our monthly newsletter through which we provide stem cell scientists information on the most current research topics and tools to help them constantly improve their stem cell culture experience.
 

To Successful Research, 

StemCultures

Information for scientists by scientists on all things related to stem cell growth including stem cell culture, culture medium, tissue culture, fibroblast growth factor (fgf2) and more.

Note: StemCultures facilitates posting on this blog, but the views and accounts expressed herein are those of the author(s) or interviewee(s) and not the views or accounts of StemCultures its officers or directors whose views and accounts may or may not be similar or identical. StemCultures, its officers and directors do not express any opinion regarding any product or service by virtue of reference to such product or service in this blog.

The “Ups and Downs” of FGF2 and Stem Cell Culture

By Leave a Comment

FGF2 and Stem Cell Culture Ups and DownsStem cells are unique in that they, like humans, possess the ability to choose.   “To be, or not to be,” is appropriate, as stem cells must decide if they want to maintain themselves as a stem cell, or turn into another cell type.  Just like us, many factors influence this decision, and one of the major ones is the protein fibroblast growth factor 2, also known as FGF2.  FGF2 eliminates this decision for stem cells, by forcing them to maintain the stem cell state.  In vivo, stem cells exist in a highly organized niche, where factors like FGF2 are maintained at constant levels to ensure stem cells are kept in the undifferentiated state.

In stem cell culture, there is tremendous value for keeping stem cells in the undifferentiated state.  The ability of stem cell to differentiate into multiple cell types is directly proportional to their level of “Stemness”.  The more undifferentiated stem cells are, the more efficient they will be in generating progeny.  In cell culture, scientists try to mimic the in vivo niche by adding soluble FGF2.   When FGF2 is not present or withdrawn from cell culture strategies, stem cells now are able to “think” and start differentiating into other cell types. In some paradigms, researchers add fresh FGF2 every day, that means coming on Saturdays and Sundays to just maintain adequate FGF2 levels.

Recently, data from our lab showed that adding FGF2 every day might not be enough.  When we looked at FGF2 levels in stem cell culture, after 10 hours in culture, no more FGF2 was left.  When we graphed this over the course of one week, FGF2 levels looked like a roller coaster ride, starting high, going low, then spiking back up, before rapidly decaying again.  This result was extremely interesting, and very important because it proved that the current standard stem cell culture techniques using FGF2 were far from optimal.  In any given 24-hour period, where stem cells are without FGF2 for greater than half that time, they start to drift away from the stem cell state and begin the differentiation process.

To address this problem, our group came up with a way to keep FGF2 levels stable for at least 3 days in culture.  When we did this, we found that stem cells were maintained better in the stem cell state, and eliminated some of that “drift” and spontaneous differentiation.  This new product, StemBeads FGF2 allows for a savings of time, money savings from the use of fewer media changes, and most importantly, facilitates the growth of better cells.

So, while a lot of us enjoy the ups and downs of a roller coaster ride to get our adrenaline pumping, ups and down of FGF2 levels in standard stem cell culture techniques are far from optimal, and a paradigm shift may be in order.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing below to our monthly newsletter through which we provide stem cell scientists information on the most current research topics and tools to help them constantly improve their stem cell culture experience.
 

To Successful Research, 

StemCultures

Information for scientists by scientists on all things related to stem cell growth including stem cell culture, culture medium, tissue culture, fibroblast growth factor (fgf2) and more.

Note: StemCultures facilitates posting on this blog, but the views and accounts expressed herein are those of the author(s) or interviewee(s) and not the views or accounts of StemCultures its officers or directors whose views and accounts may or may not be similar or identical. StemCultures, its officers and directors do not express any opinion regarding any product or service by virtue of reference to such product or service in this blog.