Lonza has announced the latest addition to its cell-culture product portfolio – the Quasi Vivo® System. The Quasi Vivo® Device consists of an advanced, interconnected fluidics system to create more physiologically relevant cell-culture conditions, helping researchers improve the predictive value of their studies.

This new product offering from Lonza is a result of a worldwide marketing and distribution agreement with Kirkstall – a biotechnology company based in Rotherham (UK).

A common issue faced by drug discovery scientists who use conventional in vitro culture systems is their poor translatability to humans. To address this problem, Kirkstall developed the Quasi Vivo® System, which consists of interconnected cell-culture chambers and a peristaltic pump to create a continuous flow of media over cells. As a result, cultures are exposed to more physiologically relevant conditions, increasing the predictive value of in vitro experiments.

The Quasi Vivo® System is available with three different culture chambers (QV500, QV600, and QV900) to support a wide range of applications, including submerged cell culture, co-culture and modeling of air-liquid and liquid-liquid interfaces. Not only is the Quasi Vivo® System easy to set up, it also enables close monitoring of variables during an experiment. Furthermore, the large scale and user configurability of the Quasi Vivo® System allows assays to be performed that are not possible using microfluidic systems.

"Building on Lonza’s industry-respected cell-culture portfolio, the addition of the Quasi Vivo® System is an important step forward in advancing the use of primary cells in biomedical research," said Dr Maureen Bunger, Product Manager for ADME/Tox Solutions at Lonza. "Some of the limitations of primary cells, such as short life-spans and unstable phenotypes, are reduced when cells are cultured in a dynamic fluid system."

She added: "The Quasi Vivo® System, which has been developed by Kirkstall’s scientists over the last 10 years, is an important addition to our portfolio of more than 100 different primary cell types and specialized media solutions."

Kirkstall’s CEO, Dr Malcolm Wilkinson, commented: "The Quasi Vivo® System complements so many of Lonza’s existing products. It is already used in more than 70 labs worldwide across a wide variety of applications, and we look forward to working closely with Lonza to ensure the number of researchers benefiting from the system increases rapidly."