Pep Talk

September 2022

Summer is drawing to a close and we’re reflecting on what’s been an exceptional summer both for Qkine and for stem cell science. In August, the stand-out scientific developments for us have been the leaps forward in complex organoid models, with impressive new papers from Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz’s group, here in Cambridge, on synthetic embryos [1]; an elegant optimized intestinal organoid culture protocol from Clevers Lab [2], and the recent stunning pre-print from Zacharias Lung Lab, revealing a refined alveolar organoid structure [3]. In-house, our R&D and manufacturing teams have been busy and launched three superb new products: the start of our neural growth factor range, Shh and VEGF, and the long form of FGF-2 for porcine/bovine cell culture media optimization. With new collaborations, exciting R&D plans and the fit-out of our new facility underway, we’re certainly looking forward to Autumn!
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the priorities for growth factor manufacturers and how we can best support stem cell science. Please email us at proteins@qkine.com.

Best regards,
Catherine (CEO and Founder)

SDS-PAGE image to indicate purity of recombinant human Shh protein

Shh now available

Sonic hedgehog (Shh) protein has many applications in the neural stem cell field, such as deriving motor neurons from iPSCs to model neuromuscular disorders. Learn more about our highly-pure recombinant human Shh and how it can help with your neural differentiation.

Cell culture image

New lab promotion

Are you setting up a new lab? To make the process a little easier, we’re offering a new lab start-up discount to make your budget go further. Please send us an email at proteins@qkine.com and we’ll be in touch shortly to discuss this exclusive promotion.

Scientific data for hepatocyte reprogramming

Paper highlight of the month – generate human hepatocytes

A new method to generate human hepatocytes by forward programming has been recently described by one of our customers in Cambridge. This method overcomes the challenges which researchers face when using hepatocyte like cells, such as lacking the full repertoire of functionalities characterising primary hepatocytes. Click here to view our full range of growth factors for hepatocyte differentiation.

Organoid poster available for download

Organoid posters – free download

This month we have two downloadable posters with media recipe reference guides for pluripotent stem cell-derived organoids and adult stem cell-derived organoids. Each poster provides an overview of the main cytokines required and a reference paper for the recipe.

Download our adult adult stem cell-derived organoid poster

Download our pluripotent stem cell-derived organoid poster

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References
1. Amadei, G. et al. Synthetic embryos complete gastrulation to neurulation and organogenesis. Nature (2022) doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05246-3
2. He, G.-W. et al. Optimized human intestinal organoid model reveals interleukin-22-dependency of paneth cell formation. Cell Stem Cell S1934-5909(22)00338–1 (2022) doi:10.1016/j.stem.2022.08.002.
3. Toth, A. et al. Alveolar epithelial progenitor cells drive lung regeneration via dynamic changes in chromatin topology modulated by lineage-specific Nkx2-1 activity. Biorxiv preprint (2022) doi:10.1101/2022.08.30.505919.