Cell Removal Technique Could Lead To Cheaper Drugs

drugs to treat conditions such as cancer and arthritis could be manufactured more cheaply with a new technique.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have pioneered a simple way to remove dead cells from cell cultures used to make protein-based drugs, which are increasingly prescribed to treat a range of illnesses.
Such medicines are expensive to make, with high costs resulting from the time-consuming and labour-intensive nature of developing them in cell culture.
Scientists have streamlined this process using magnetic beads coated with special antibodies that bind to dead cells without harming the remaining healthy cells. A magnet is then used to draw the dead cells out, leaving the living cells to produce beneficial proteins more effectively.

Earlier cell were centrifuged at very high speed to remove the dead cells and this process often lead to death of normal cells, so this process of removing dead cells has increased the efficiency close to 100% to make protein products and vaccine.

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