Revolutionizing cell cultures transport

InSphero develops 3D microtissues for use in drug development. One of the company’s most successful 3D microtissues is the human liver model, which can mimic liver function for up to four weeks in the lab. It can be used to test how drugs might affect liver function. InSphero has now developed a new shipping system for this microtissue, as the company reported in a press release.   

InSphero has named the new shipping system InFloat. Calling it “revolutionary”, the press release explains that the new patent-pending transport technology ensures the plates of microtissue are kept upright, secure and at physiological temperatures suitable for live cell cultures during domestic and international transit. It employs a simple but ingenious approach in which a watertight spherical container floats on water inside a cubical container and can freely rotate, so that the precious microtissue cargo inside always remains in a stable, upright position.

“One of the biggest challenges of shipping live 3D cell cultures is that we simply can’t control what happens to our boxes of microtissues after they leave our bioproduction facilities,” says Jan Lichtenberg, InSphero CEO and Co-Founder. “Our InFloat shipping system reduces shipping risks and uncertainty by allowing our carefully packaged plates of microtissues to literally float safely on water until they reach their destination.”

InSphero specializes in liver toxicology, metabolic diseases and oncology. The company is a spin-off from the University of Zurich (UZH) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) with headquarters in the Bio-Technopark Schlieren-Zurich.