(1292-A) Fully automated maintenance of HEK-293T cells using Mytos for use with cell screening platform

Abstract: At Tessera, cell-based assays are a key tool for measuring our Gene WritingTM potential. Routine cell culture work is highly manual and variable for each person. We sought to establish an automated method to deliver high quality, consistent cells for use in our cell-based assays. To do this we worked with Mytos, a startup building a flask based automated cell culture platform, to develop a protocol for continual growth and production of Human Embryonic Kidney (HEK)-293T cells in eight large tissue culture flasks across two weeks.

With this protocol we were able to grow, split and collect cells on a bi-weekly basis to have more flexibility for the start of our downstream cell-assays. We were able to collect roughly 50 million cells every 3-4 days (set for collection only on weekdays), resulting in more than 100 plates of starting cells in our cell-based assays per week. This can allow for consistency across teams and individual people as well as improved productivity and time savings by reducing hands-on cell maintenance. We are continuing, with Mytos, to develop methods for other immortalized cell lines as well as other adherent cell lines such as induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSC) cells. We hope to increase the flexibility for our users with more options for cell types and selection dates for cell collection. We believe this work and future developments will potentially lead to improvements in our cell-based screening approaches and reduce the workload for scientists.