Laurence Daheron, Phd, Head of the iPS Core Facility at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, discusses the benefits of hypoxic conditions in iPS facilities.
Transcript:
All our cell cultures are done on normoxic conditions, so about 20% oxygen. We’ve done some reprogramming at five percent. And it was shown that this increases the reprogramming efficiency. So the only thing we’re trying to get here is higher efficiency. We’re not trying to recapitulate the environment. I know a few core facilities that have all their facility at five percent of oxygen. But the issue here is: your cells are going back and forth between incubator and biosafety cabinet. So the oxygen level go back and forth. High, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down… which might not be a good thing. So, ideally you want a system that is totally enclosed. It is too expensive. So we haven’t invested in this at this point and I haven’t checked I mean I haven’t seen in the literature strong strong evidence that we need to go this way or we need to put so much money to invest in this system.