In an effort to create a more physiological three-dimensional (3-D) environment for cell growth while maintaining the logistics of well plate screening for drug discovery purposes, we have develop a 3-D micro-scaffold platform from electrospun material used in conjunction with well plates for higher throughput screening. We have engineered electrospun material to form micro-scaffold islands of cells. Cells grow on, around and into the material, effectively “3-D in solution”. The incorporation of iron nano-particles into the fibres results in micro-scaffold islands that can be physically manipulated using electro-magnetism. We will show data of exemplar assays using recombinant, primary and differentiated stem cell assays on micro-scaffolds, using this approach to examine a number of luminescence and fluorescence readouts in recombinant cell lines and have differentiated iPSC’s to cortical neurones on micro-scaffolds to characterise then use imaging as a readout. Data suggests that this micro-scaffold approach may open new opportunities for recombinant cell based screening and differentiated stem cell assays using single and co-cultures in a well plate-based format more amenable to higher throughputs with little manual intervention.
