Projects

Single living cells are essential for the production of therapeutic proteins by monoclonal cell lines. Furthermore, monoclonal cell lines are important for cell therapy. However, the isolation of individual cells is a major challenge. Established methods for monoclonal cell line development have limitations in maintaining the viability of the cell and ensuring that the cell line is actually derived from a single cell. The single-cell printer enables gentle isolation of individual living cells from suspension. Similar to an inkjet printer, the print head of the single cell printer are generates free-flying microdroplets from a liquid cell sample which are disposed on a substrate in a non-contact manner. Assisted by a microscope camera and computerized automatic image processing, only microdroplets containing exactly one cell.are printed. In this project the Mono-cy-Clone will be developed on the basis of the single-cell printer in order to deliver individual, high-quality cells for biotechnological processes in regulated markets. The Mono-cy-Clone will provide a proof of monoclonality demanded by regulatory authorities for a reproducible product quality. Mono-cy-Clone foresees the development of single-cell printing under sterile conditions with well-documented single-cell detection in respect of regulatory requirements for the production of therapeutic proteins and cell therapy.