Animal-free

At Qkine we have repeatedly highlighted the need for stricter process and quality control in the manufacture of high purity in recombinant growth factors to prevent cross contamination with related growth factors. Contamination with other bioactive proteins leads to lack of inter and intra-lab reproducibility, or perhaps most concerningly incorrect scientific conclusions.

Protein tags are useful tools for affinity purification and other biochemical applications, but unnecessary tagging of proteins can cause issues. Read our latest blog and discover - Protein tags, why and why not?

Qkine is a company run by scientists, and the science is the focus of everything we do. Our theme at ISSCR this year was stress-free stem cell culture - exploring how suppliers of recombinant proteins can proactively improve the quality, availability and functionality of growth factors to generate experimental outcomes faster, easier and more efficiently.

Reflections on the dynamic ISSCR 2024 workshop on Standards for Human Stem Cell Use in Research including recommendations for growth factor supply chains for raw (ancillary materials) for cell therapy and ATMP manufacture.

Commercial sources of recombinant human GDF15 protein, in particular those purified from mammalian expression, are frequently contaminated with trace amounts of TGFβ and related proteins. These trace contaminants cause misleading experimental results due to the picomolar or even femtomolar EC50s of this family of cytokines.  Please be cautious with your source of recombinant GDF15 protein.

The manufacture of cell and gene therapy products and tissue-engineered regenerative medicine products often requires recombinant proteins such as growth factors and cytokines. These are classified as raw or ancillary materials ie. culture media components or reagents that are not intended to be included in the final product.

We've recently fully transitioned to an animal origin-free (AOF) manufacturing process for our recombinant proteins. This shift ensures the highest standards of safety, purity, and sustainability in bioproduction. By eliminating all animal-derived components, including heparin-based purification columns, we’re supporting ethical and cruelty-free biomanufacturing. Learn more about our journey to 100% AOF.

Qkine has concluded a sales distribution agreement with Japanese company, MBL Medical & Biological Laboratories Co., Ltd. MBL have extensive knowledge and presence within the Japanese regenerative medicine and iPSC sector, an important market for Qkine's high purity, animal-free optimised growth factor and cytokine proteins. The two companies share a focus on product quality and the emerging areas of organoid and organ-on-chip technologies for basic research, personalised medicine and drug discovery. This distributor agreement between Qkine and MBL will facilitate access to Qkine's entire range of premium quality, animal-free and novel optimised growth factor proteins across Japan.

Qkine and Enantis have concluded a global licensing deal for Enantis’s patented FGF2-STAB® technology. FGF2-STAB® is a hyperstable form of FGF-2 (bFGF), a core reagent for stem cell culture. FGF2-STAB (FGF2-G3) does not degrade in culture media for enhanced weekend-free stem cell culture media and advanced chemically defined systems, such as those needed in the cultured meat industry.

Qkine, Manchester BIOGEL and Cellesce have been awarded Innovate UK Sustainable Innovation Funding to develop fully synthetic, chemically-defined three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds to enable manufacture scale up and improve reproducibility of patient-derived organoids.

Most industries today are under pressure to switch to more ethical and sustainable animal-free alternatives, and now the trend is […]