An engineering road map for scaling up production of stem cell-derived treatments

Yonatan Lipsitz (PhD Candidate, Biomedical Engineering) is the lead author of a new publication that outlines a manufacturing framework for stem cell therapeutics. (Photo: Neil Ta)

Growing artificial human tissues and making automobiles don’t appear to have much in common, but a new paper suggests that some of the same engineering principles may apply.

Yonatan Lipsitz (BioMedE PhD Candidate) is the lead author on the new perspectives article published today in Nature Biotechnology. Along with his co-authors, Professor Peter Zandstra (IBBME) and Nick Timmins of the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM), Lipsitz has laid out a framework for how to develop the large-scale manufacturing processes needed to bring therapies based on stem cells — able to turn into different types of human cells — into the mainstream. At its heart is a principle adapted from the automotive and pharmaceutical industries: quality-by-design.

Continue reading at UofT Engineering News.