online symposium:
This Mini-symposium is aimed to bring together various experts from the field from both academia and industry, to highlight and discuss available alternative coatings for human cell culture.
Human cell culture systems are widely used tools in many research areas, for example in toxicology.
While some cells are capable of producing their own extracellular matrix (ECM), many others require pre-coating of the cell culture dish. One example are human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC).
Matrigel is one of the most commonly used coatings for culturing iPSC (and other cell types) and is retrieved by inducing sarcoma tumours to mice. Its replacement is desired for several reasons, including better standardization conditions and for ethical reasons.