Stem Cell Expansion and Differentiation in Microcarrier-Based Bioreactors for Large Scale Production

Microcarriers have been widely used for various biotechnology applications because of their high scale-up potential, high reproducibility on regulating cellular behaviors, and their compliance with current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). Recently, microcarriers have been investigated for stem cell expansion and differentiation, enabling potential scale-up of stem cell-derived products in large bioreactors. This presentation summarizes recent advances of using microcarriers for mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) and pluripotent stem cell (PSC) cultures in bioreactors. From the reported data, efficient expansion and differentiation of stem cells on microcarriers relies on their ability to modulate cell shape (round or spreading) and cell organization (i.e. aggregate size). Nonetheless, current screening of microcarriers remains empirical, and accurate understanding of how stem cells interact with microcarriers still remains unknown. Accurate characterization of biochemical and biomechanical properties of the microcarriers is required to fully exploit their potential in regulating stem cell fate decisions. Due to the evident variety of microcarriers, such detailed analyses should lead to the rational design of application-specific microcarriers, enabling reproducible effects on stem cell expansion and differentiation for large scale biological and biomedical applications in the pharmaceutical industry

Safety climate factors in construction – a literature review

It is an established fact that a mature safety climate and a rich safety culture contribute to achieving a safe workplace. This paper aims to explore and to make explicit the existing safety climate assessment tools and dimensions and suggests the leading factors that can be used for safety climate assessment in construction. The construction industry and the status of occupational safety and health are firstly discussed in a global context. The concept of safety climate is then discussed with a review of different safety climate factors from the published literature. A qualitative research method was employed to explore the existing safety climate factors. A total of 19 safety climate assessment tools with 103 safety climate factors spanning over a period of 39 years (1980–2019) are discussed. The most prevailing safety climate factors including management commitment, training, employees’ involvement, behaviour, communication, accountability and justice, and leadership are discussed in the paper. It is recommended that the factors discussed in this paper may need to be validated first before they are incorporated in the assessment of the safety climate of a specific construction project and organisation in a country or region