Press Release


March 10th, 2021

[Building the future of Regenerative Medicine]
   Introduction of innovative thermo-responsive smart surface
   culture ware “SSCW” and free sample offerings

CSTERM
Representative Director
Teruo Okano PhD

CSTERM* is proud to announce a successful development of SSCW**, a low cost and highly functional thermo-responsive smart surface culture ware in collaboration with TWINS, Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering and Science, Tokyo Women’s Medical University. The breakthrough was made possible by capitalizing on newly developed polymer coating technologies, which allowed us to achieve large scale and reliable production at very low cost. CSTERM will start offering limited number of free samples following the virtual exhibition at the 20th annual meeting of Japan Society of Regenerative Medicine, which will be held online during March 11th- 13th, 2021.

CSTERM is an independent Japanese general incorporated association, which was established in 2017 by Dr. Teruo Okano, inventor of temperature responsive culture dishes, Professor Emeritus of Tokyo Women’s Medical University and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of the University of Utah. Mission of CSTERM is to promote fusion research & development of regenerative medicine based on “cell sheet engineering” technologies and to facilitate global networking of collaborations.

Our new culture ware SSCW was developed with a solid intention of encouraging up-and-coming researchers and medical doctors to proactively participate in research and development activities in cell sheet regenerative medicine, thereby bringing about a bright future for the regenerative medicine through successful clinical translational projects. The SSCW’s distinctive characteristics include high functionality and usability throughout the cell culture process, starting from smooth adhesion of cells to proliferation and cell sheet detachment at very low cost. CSTERM currently plans to make SSCW commercially available in October this year. We will continue to broaden the product lineup and to provide potential users with various support such as advisory services on cell culture processes and seminars.


*CSTERM: Organization of Cell Sheet Tissue Engineering
                Regenerative Medicine Initiatives, Japan
**SSCW:  Smart Surface Culture Ware newly developed by
                CSTERM (trademark registered)

1.Background:


CSTERM, under the research collaboration with Tokyo Women’s
Medical University, set up a SSCW development team with
Hosokawa Yoko Co., Ltd., one of the advancing companies in
the field of packaging materials for food and medical products,
and started product development of SSCW in full swing. Based
on hundreds of our own test manufacturing and cell culture
experiments, the development team has successfully
established a reliable and low cost process for mass production
in Japan.

The development team has communicated and received
essential support from academic researchers in multiple
universities since an early stage of sample development with
valuable feedback and advice based on their cooperative
culture tests. Those support rendered by individuals seriously
concerned to overcome any hurdles of cell culture and
detachment together with us. Our vision sharing cooperative
efforts enabled us to successfully launch SSCW this time
overcoming various challenges and issues of product
development through the difficult time of COVID-19.

2.Sample offerings:


Two types of 3.5cmΦ SSCW samples*** will be provided for
free to those, who both have officially participated in the 20th
General Meeting of Japan Society of Regenerative Medicine and
are willing to conduct their own experiment in cell culturing by
SSCW and report the result by filling our questionnaire. For
those who are only interested in obtaining SSCW samples, we
plan to offer at 500 yen per piece starting sometime in May. We
will continue to broaden our product lineup based on various
feedback from sample users.

       *** SSCW-E type for highly adhesive cell
       *** SSCW-M type for standard adhesive cell

3.Toward Commercial Launch of SSCW:


Currently, we plan to make SSCW commercially available in
October this year at estimated price of 800 yen per piece. We
are planning to hold virtual seminars on-line, to inform culture
protocol of cell sheet for our potential users, at the time of
product role out. In addition, we intend to gradually broaden
our product lineup with different sizes and shapes, such as
6cm? and 10cm? or multi-well type dishes.

Lastly, we are ready to initiate strategic communication with
any interested parties on SSCW to formulate marketing and
sales alliances globally.

Please do not hesitate to contact us.

4.Contacts:


Organization of Cell Sheet Tissue Engineering Regenerative
Medicine Initiatives with its home address at 〒107-6036 36F
Ark Mori Building, 1-12-32, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

Homepage:          https://www.csterm.com/
Email for inquiry:  info@csterm.com



Other related parties:

Tokyo Women’s Medical University, Institute of Advanced
Biomedical Engineering & Science

Homepage:          https://www.twmu.ac.jp/ABMES/


Hosokawa Yoko Co., Ltd
Homepage:          https://www.hosokawa-yoko.co.jp/


Press Release (PDF)