Real-time monitoring could revolutionise stem cell biology

To create conditions for cells that are as close to in-vivo as possible, a leading stem cell researcher has implemented a new system that can allow the monitoring of cells in real-time within a controlled environment.

Dr Minger thinks real-time monitoring will have a major impact on his work

Dr Stephen Minger, Senior Lecturer and Director of the Stem Cell Biology Laboratory at the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases, King's College London, has equipped his laboratory with a Nikon BioStation CT - which combines an incubator and a robot together with advanced microscopy.

Dr Minger, who helped develop the system, said: “The ability to be able to continuously observe cells in a highly controlled environment and yet to do this across literally hundreds of different cell types and culture conditions at the same time has the potential to revolutionise our understanding of stem cell biology, which ultimately could have a major impact in our work on therapeutic applications of stem cells.” 

Dr Minger will be able to watch cells interact in real-time continuously in a controlled environment without alterations in temperature and oxygen concentration. He will also, for the first time, be able to continuously monitor the behaviour of large numbers of stem cells in a long-term, sustainable fashion, across a wide range of culture conditions, tissue culture formats, growth factors, and substrates.

Dr Minger believes that the system will transform his work and allow him and his contemporaries to advance studies into stem cell and embryonic research far beyond their current capabilities. Looking to the future, he believes that systems such as these may ultimately be able to provide us with information that currently not obtainable using conventional time-lapse imaging.