STEM CELL USER GROUP (SCUG) REPORT
Stem Cell User Group Meetings have been held at various centres throughout the UK over the last few years. More recently, staff from the Irish Stem Cell laboratories have joined this group and the 11th SCUG meeting was held in St Vincent’s University Hospital on 18th June 2010. There were 35 delegates from 10 centres in the UK and from 4 centres in Ireland. In addition, representatives from Asistec, Planer plc, Smart Cells, Quest Biomedical, Shield Medicare, Agma, Miltenyi Biotec, Fisher Bioservices and Cryoservice attended, some of them with trade stands.
This year the Academy of Medical Laboratory Science was a main sponsor for which the group is very grateful. There were 12 presentations on the agenda giving a wide variety of topics. Mike Watts from UCLH in London presented data on the stability of HPC-A clonogenic activity post thaw. Although the study was performed on a specific cohort of samples that were all frozen within 2 hours of collection in a starch-based cryoprotectant with a final DMCO concentration of 5%, the results showed minimum decline in clonogenic activity over 2 hours at RT. John Fitzgerald from OLCH Crumlin shared the experiences he gained during the design, build and validation of a new cleanroom.
Kevin Jestice from Addenbrooks in Cambridge discussed the education options available for Stem Cell Laboratory staff. Historically, the majority are haematology and transfusion medical scientists. A BBTS/BATB specialist certificate course in Cell & Tissue Transplantation is now available, but only a small part of this course relates to haematopoietic stem cells. The thought provoking question remains as to what relevant qualification is available for stem cell laboratory staff and what minimum qualification is required.
Sarah O’Meara from the Irish Medicines Board spoke about the Regulation of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products. Michelle McNulty from SVUH presented part of her Masters project. She spoke about the development of a flow cytometric viability assay for cryopreserved peripheral blood stem cells.
Cathy Leddy from SVUH presented part of her Degree project on platelet engraftment studies using the Immature Platelet Fraction software on the Sysmex XE-2100.
Aideen Sheridan from OLCH Crumlin presented data from her Masters project on the use of 5% Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) as a cryoprotectant in the cryopreservation of haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Her results show that mononuclear cell viability was not reduced using 5% DMSO and that post cryopreservation cell recovery may even be better than when 10% DMSO is used.
