Product News: New Cell Culture Surface Designed to Enable Consistent, Repeatable Formation of Spheroids in Suspension

Nunclon Sphera supports the growth of three-dimensional cancer spheroids and embryoid bodies to help drive advancements in cancer and stem cell research.

Scientists working on cancer research are now able to use a new non-adherent cell culture surface to support the formation of consistent cancer spheroids in vitro, simulating the three-dimensional (3D) structures of tumor growth and providing a better model system for studying tumor cell progression and the efficacy of anticancer agents than two-dimensional (2D) systems and other surfaces. Thermo Fisher Scientific will showcase these solutions during Analytica 2014 (Hall B1, Booth #101) being held at Messe München in Munich from April 1-4.

The new Thermo Scientific Nunclon Sphera is a polymer-coated surface with very low-binding characteristics, which is designed to allow many different cell types to grow in suspension consistently with virtually no cell attachment. An alternative to commonly used non-treated surfaces, the Nunclon Sphera non-adherent surface is especially important for researchers seeking to cultivate cancer and stem cell spheroids, since the product is able to grow uniform and dependable spheres. The Nunclon Sphera surface also offers exceptional quality for embryoid body formation of pluripotent stem cells, providing a reliable tool to investigate cell fate potential and lineage specificity of stem cells.

“When scientists reach the phase of taking the pluripotent stem cells on to differentiation, a consistent reproducible surface is critical to prevent the loss of valuable cells to surface attachment,” said Roberta Morris, business director, cell culture, Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Our new surface is an important milestone in the differentiation process of stem cells by providing a non-binding surface that is designed to allow researchers to grow more spheroids in suspension, both reliably and simply.”

Available in round and flat-bottom 96-well plates, single or multi-well dish and flask formats, the Thermo Scientific Nunclon Sphera surface is designed to easily integrate into a researcher’s existing cell culture research workflow and facilitate an array of cancer and stem cell research from routine passage of cells to high throughput imaging analysis.