Protein science and quality

Commercial media preparations can be a convenient option for stem cell and organoid maintenance and differentiation, but the proprietary 'black box' formulation prohibits trouble-shooting and optimization read our blog, as we ask, what's in it?

Scientists have long struggled to access a reliable, animal-free, and high-quality version of IL-34. When we first started working on IL-34 at Qkine, we weren’t just trying to make another recombinant protein. We wanted to solve a real problem.

In this recently revised and expanded paper from our collaborators in the Bertero lab, Truszkowski et al. have described a cost-effective homemade media recipe for the culture of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs), this adds to the evidence that homemade media using Qkine growth factors can be a suitable replacement for, or improvement on, commercially available media.

Why are the products labelled cell therapy grade and not GMP grade? Although GMP-grade is a recognized term within the growth factor space, it is not an accreditation that can be strictly applied to products outside of the pharmaceutical, cosmetic or food industries. 

Qkine cell therapy grade proteins are animal origin-free, but why is this so important? The FDA are clear in their recommendation that animal origin-free reagents are used for increased safety in cell and gene therapy manufacture.

All Qkine proteins are animal origin-free, but why is this so important? Why aren’t all recombinant proteins produced in animal free expression systems? Read our latest blog and discover - Why animal origin-free?

This collaboration merges 3D Bio-Tissues novel macromolecular crowding technology with that of Qkine in complex protein manufacturing and engineering to allow testing and validation and improve culture performance and bioprocessing yields.

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?

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.

Cultivated meat is a nascent industry with a developing regulatory framework, with distinct regional differences. There are however some shared themes across regulatory frameworks and best practice. Within the UK and EU, cultivated meat is considered a novel food and as such falls under the scope of Regulation (EU) No. 2015/2283. In response to this classification, the Food Safety Agency commissioned an internal report into the potential hazards to the consumer associated with the production and consumption of cultured meat. Following a literature review of 154 papers discussing cultured meat as a technology, themes that apply to growth factors have been highlighted and discussed.