No abstract

Despite the advent of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) in regenerative medicine, gene therapy, cell therapies, tissue engineering, and immunotherapy, the availability of treatment is limited to patients close to state-of-the-art facilities. The SCORPIO-V Division of HNu Photonics has developed the Phoenix-Live Cell Transport TM , a battery-operated mobile incubator designed to facilitate long-distance transportation of living cell cultures from GMP facilities to remote areas for increased patient accessibility to ATMPs. This work demonstrates that Phoenix TM (patent pending) is a superior mechanism for transporting living cells compared to the standard method of shipping frozen cells on dry ice (−80°C) or in liquid nitrogen (−150°C), which are destructive to the biology as well as a time consuming process. Thus, Phoenix will address a significant market need within the burgeoning ATMP industry. SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were cultured in a stationary Phoenix for up to 5 days to assess cell viability and proliferation. The results show there is no significant difference in cell proliferation (∼5X growth on day 5) or viability (>90% viability on all days) when cultured in Phoenix TM and compared to a standard 5% CO 2 incubator. Similarly, SH-SY5Y cells were evaluated following ground (1–3 days) and air (30 min) shipments to understand the impact of transit vibrations on the cell cultures. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in SH-SY5Y cell proliferation (∼2X growth on day 3) or viability (>90% viability for all samples) when the cells are subjected to the vibrations of ground and air transportation when compared to control samples in a standard, stationary 5% CO 2 incubator. Furthermore, the temperature, pressure, humidity, and accelerometer sensors log data during culture shipment to ensure that the sensitive ATMPs are handled with the appropriate care during transportation. The Phoenix TM technology innovation will significantly increase the accessibility, reproducibility, and quality-controlled transport of living ATMPs to benefit the widespread commercialization of ATMPs globally. These results demonstrate that Phoenix TM can transport sensitive cell lines with the same care as traditional culture techniques in a stationary CO 2 incubator with higher yield, less time and labor, and greater quality control than frozen samples.

Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) is an agricultural pest that has been observed co-infesting soft-skinned fruits with Zaprionus indianus Gupta. The characterization of olfactory preferences by species is a necessary step towards the development of species-specific attractants. Five olfactory attractants were used to survey the populations of two invasive drosophilids in cherimoya in Maui, Hawaii. The attractants used were apple cider vinegar (ACV), brown rice vinegar (BRV), red wine (RW), apple cider vinegar and red wine (ACV+RW; 60/40), and brown rice vinegar and red wine (BRV+RW; 60/40). For D. suzukii, BRV+RW resulted in more captures than BRV, ACV, and RW, while ACV+RW resulted in more captures than ACV. No differences were observed between BRV+RW and ACV+RW. BRV had greater specificity in attracting D. suzukii compared to ACV, ACV+RW, and RW. For Z. indianus, no significant differences were observed in either the mean captures or specificity for any attractant used. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that (1) BRV and BRV+RW are effective field attractants and (2) D. suzukii has unique olfactory preferences compared to non-target drosophilids, while (3) Z. indianus’ preferences do not appear to vary from non-target drosophilids, and (4) the accuracy of relative abundance is impacted by the specificity of the attractants.

were responsible for the study design, data collection, data analysis and manuscript preparation. Caitlin O'Connell-Rodwell, Dan O'Connell and Devin Ridgley were responsible for the final preparation of this manuscript and decision to submit for publication.Author Contributions: DR conceived and supervised the study. DR and BW designed the experiments. BW carried out the experiments. SL developed image analysis macros to quantify response variables. BW performed the statistical analysis and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. DR, DO and CO-R critically revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.