Developing a Novel Incubator to Increase Cell Culture Reproducibility

Project Summary / Abstract Embrient proudly presents its “Developing a Novel Incubator to Increase Cell Culture Reproducibility” grant. For years, Embrient (and its predecessor company) has been addressing a problem bedeviling researchers worldwide: “how can I culture my cells in a static, unchanging environment, instead of an environment that changes unpredictably and potentially sabotages my experiment?” Embrient's 50-year-old flagship product, the MIC-101, is a sealed incubation chamber that has admirably served researchers investigating malaria, HIV, and even recent Nobel Prize laureates studying hypoxia-inducible factors (HIF). The “flying saucer-shaped” chamber has been cited extensively in the scientific literature for over 50 years. However, it has limited functionality and is somewhat difficult-to-use. Despite the MIC-101's proud history, the time has come to replace it. With this grant, Embrient aims to revolutionize incubator technology by developing a continuous flow incubator that is virtually impregnable to typical outside perturbations, such as checking daily cell growth and health, multiple users, contamination, and fluctuations in CO2, O2, and other gas mixtures. Embrient has secured five patents for its pioneering incubator design that employs an "Air Veil" to insulate the interior conditions from external influences. A major issue coming from the NIH, researchers and incubator manufacturers alike has been, “how to increase reproducibility of experiments over time and across labs?” Embrient's groundbreaking incubator directly addresses this concern. Instead of “putting up with” currently marketed incubators that can take up to 50 minutes of “recovery time” after door openings and disturbances, Embrient's recovery time (subject to testing and optimization to be performed in this grant), can be near zero. To achieve this, Embrient will apply air barrier principles using laminar flow, already proven in large scale applications such as commercial refrigerated (or heated) spaces, adapted to meet the unique needs of an incubator. This means cell culture experiments can achieve consistent human body and other conditions without the wide fluctuations that plague current market incubators. Embrient can make a dramatic improvement in the way cell culture is performed in laboratories worldwide, and thus make a major advance in research results.