Roche and BioLamina have signed an agreement to jointly research and develop new cell culture systems for applications, including stem cell research. The collaboration will focus on assessing laminin-based in-vitro cell culture matrices offering highly physiological microenvironments for living cells. Roche will provide R&D funding and scientific expertise to BioLamina. Financial details were not disclosed.
 
“Our aim is to develop laminin-based culture systems that provide biologically relevant, standardized environments,” said Ruedi Stoffel, head of Biochemical Reagents & Custom Biotech at Roche. “We are looking forward to this collaboration to build on the revolutionary cell cultivation techniques developed by our colleagues at the Karolinska Institute and BioLamina.”
 
“We’re delighted that Roche has recognized the potential of our products and technology, which we believe will significantly complement their expertise and capabilities in cell culturing,” said Kristian Tryggvason, chief executive officer of BioLamina. “By resolving many of the technical obstacles currently blocking the road to modern cell therapy, we expect this collaboration to accelerate the development of innovative cell culturing solutions that possibly can enable cell therapy.”