DATE: March 28, 2018
TIME: 10:00am PDT, 01:00pm EDT

Primary cells are derived from various tissues typically via dissection, enzymatic dissociation, and subsequent culture in media specifically designed to support expansion of defined cell types.   Following expansion, primary cells largely retain the characteristics of the tissue from which they were isolated, providing greater physiological relevance relative to immortalized cell lines.  Thermo Fisher Scientific offers a wide array of primary cells from both human and non-human sources and specialized culture supports, including media, matrices, and passaging reagents.  In this webinar we will review the scope of our primary cells and culture reagents and discuss factors for consideration when deciding between primary cell and stem cell-derived models.  We will present examples of incorporating specific pathway sensors into primary cells to create reporters in a normal adult human background.  In addition, we will highlight the use of primary cells for creating 3D organotypic epithelial models.  The incorporation of primary human cells into 3D tissue models enables the in vitro recapitulation of complex human physiology, providing sophisticated biological models for research and product development.    Finally, we will share our perspective on how primary cell models will continue to complement advances in stem cell biology.