CULTURED CILIATED CELLS FOR HIGH THROUGHPUT SCREENING

DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Abstract): BioTechPlex proposes to develop a mammalian, tracheal/bronchial airway epithelial cell line specifically for high throughput screening. This is based on physiological functional assay. These cells will have a minimum of 3-6 weeks life-span following secondary culture. The outcome of this project provides the first cell model system that can be used for a new generation of HTS platform for pulmonary drug discovery as well as serving the specific needs for cellular physiology/pharmacology research and tissue engineering. In this Phase I project, BioTechPlex will develop a technique to culture the airway epithelial cells such that their ciliary functions are preserved longer than 16 weeks and sub-culture these cells either in collagen-coated submerged medium or using an air-liquid interface. The investigators will develop a technique to reactivate the dormant ciliogenesis mechanisms to regenerate the cilia in these epithelial cells with a minimum of 50 percent of the cells are ciliated, a condition in close resemblance to that found in vivo and in native tracheal and major bronchial epithelia. In Phase II, BioTechPlex will construct a rotating bio-reactor system to produce large quantities of these airway ciliated epithelial cells of the major mammalian species used in epithelial research and drug screening. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Not Available