One of Rainbow’s partner companies, Nano3D Biosciences (n3D), is bringing a bit of outer space down to earth, and it’s doing it for a good cause. The company has developed a way to simulate the weightlessness of outer space on a small scale, right in the lab, allowing researchers to better create and deal with 3-dimensional biological processes. With the company’s proprietary Bio-Assembler, special reagents deliver biocompatible magnetic nanoparticles to cells. Magnetic forces can then gently levitate and guide cells together as if they were weightless, to quickly induce cell-cell interactions in a true 3D environment as they would react in a living organism.
Space research has shown that reduced gravitational force can have a significant effect on cell growth and function, and can provide a superior way to work with and explore biological processes related to things such as cancer treatment. By presenting a way to duplicate the effects of space inside a controlled earthbound laboratory, n3D gives scientists an important new tool. In addition, the n3D system is very easy to use, and operates in standard petri dishes with virtually any cell and media type. It’s compatible with co-culturing, and standard imaging and diagnostic techniques. There are no special media requirements when culturing cells with their Bio-Assembler.
Cells grown in 2D mono-layers simply do not replicate the complex interactions and architecture found in living organisms, and this limits the effectiveness of basic life science research, toxicity testing, and drug discovery. The n3D system offers rapid formation of 3D structures and cell-cell interactions, more accurately representing the in vivo environment, and providing a unique capability for moving and shaping tissue. For more physiologically relevant results, the future clearly lies in 3D cell culturing.
For additional information, visit www.RainbowbioSciences.com and www.n3DBio.com
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