KAIST "Stem Cell Culture Without Animal-Derived Materials... Expected Utilization of Core Technology"

A novel stem cell culture platform completely free of animal-derived components (xeno-free, hereafter referred to as xeno-free) has been developed in South Korea. Notably, this platform has been proven for the first time in the world to enable long-term culture of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), raising expectations for its potential use as a foundational technology in the future.

KAIST announced on the 31st that Professor Seong-Gap Im's research team from the Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology at KAIST and Dr. Mi-Young Son's research team from the Stem Cell Convergence Research Center at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) jointly developed a chemically synthesized xeno-free human pluripotent stem cell culture platform.

Stem cell culture has so far largely depended on animal-derived materials, which carry risks of transmitting animal pathogens and exhibit significant variability between production processes.

Among these, the culture of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human induced pluripotent stem cells has a high dependency on animal-derived components such as mouse fibroblasts and Matrigel, causing legal and ethical issues in clinical applications of stem cell-based therapies, as well as limiting the safety and efficacy of treatments.

(From left) Seonggap Lim, Professor at KAIST; Younghak Cho, Ph.D. at Korea Institute of Science and Technology; Hana Lee, Ph.D. at Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology; Miyoung Son, Ph.D. at Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology. Provided by KAIST

Younghak Cho, Ph.D. at Korea Institute of Science and Technology; Hana Lee, Ph.D. at Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology; Wonji Jeong, Student at KAIST

To address these issues, the joint research team conducted screening and optimization of synthetic polymers, then coated them onto culture substrates to successfully design and develop a stem cell culture platform that can provide a stable long-term attachment base for human pluripotent stem cells.

In particular, performance tests on human embryonic stem cells and human induced pluripotent stem cells cultured long-term on the newly developed platform demonstrated stable culture without performance loss compared to Matrigel, the conventional standard stem cell culture coating.

This is the world's first case proving that human induced pluripotent stem cells can be long-term passaged more than 10 times in a xeno-free environment.

Most importantly, the platform developed by the joint research team maintained the expression of key proteins involved in cell differentiation, self-renewal, and stem cell characteristic maintenance without changes compared to cells cultured on Matrigel, marking a significant advancement in enhancing the stability and consistency of stem cell therapeutics.

The joint research was supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s Bioindustry Core Technology Development Project, the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Ministry of Science and ICT’s Korea Bio Grand Challenge project, the Pan-Government Regenerative Medicine Technology Development Project, and major projects of the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology.

The research results, organized by Dr. Young-Hak Cho of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Dr. Hana Lee of KRIBB, and KAIST student Won-Ji Jeong as first authors, were published online on July 17 in the international academic journal Advanced Materials.

Professor Seong-Gap Im of KAIST stated, “The joint research team succeeded in developing a new xeno-free culture platform that breaks away from conventional stem cell culture methods, and for the first time in the world, demonstrated that long-term culture of human induced pluripotent stem cells is possible without animal-derived materials.”

He added, “This research is expected to be utilized as a foundational technology for the commercialization of stem cell therapeutics in the future, and we plan to conduct follow-up studies to enable commercialization and large-scale production of the platform developed by the joint research team.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.