The Physiological Oxygen Laboratory will be hosting a Pharma / Industry-focused workshop with overview lectures on the importance screening therapeutics in cell models under physiological oxygen levels followed by laboratory demonstrations of oxygen regulated workstations, imaging equipment and atmosphere controlled plate reader.

Workshop Programme

10:00 – 10:15 Arrival and Registration

10:15 – 11:00 Welcome and Introductory Lecture – Prof Giovanni Mann

School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences, KCL

Defining Physiological Normoxia in Cell Physiology for Improved Clinical Translation

11:00 – 11:30 Dr Krista Rantanen, Director of Scientific Applications, Baker-Ruskinn and Dr Joose Kreutzer, Founder and CEO, BioGenium Microsystems

Oxygenie: an innovative, portable O₂-regulated ‘incubator’ enabling cell imaging

11:30 – 12:00 Oliver Carney & Catherine Wark, Technical Applications Specialists, BMG Labtech

Cellular Oxygenation and Metabolism in vitro Using O₂ Regulated Plate Readers

12:00 – 12:30 Dr Walker Inman, Founder and CEO, Lucid Scientific

Real Time Monitoring of Cellular Oxygen Consumption Using the Resipher

12:30 – 13:15 Prof Mauro Giacca Head, School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences, KCL

Keynote Lecture - Functional Screenings For New Cardiac Biologics

13.15 – 14.00 Lunch Break

14:00 – 16:00 Physiological Oxygen Laboratory Demonstration – Room 3.26

SCI-tive and InvivO2 workstations (Baker-Ruskinn), Oxygenie (BioGenium), ClarioStar plate reader (BMG Labtech), Evos Microscope (ThermoFisher), Resipher (Lucid Scientific) and Human Cells (Caltag Medsystems)

Dr Matthew Smith & Fan Yang (King’s College London), Dr Krista Rantanen (Baker Ruskinn), Dr Joose Kreutzer (University of Tampere), Oliver Carney & Catherine Wark (BMG Labtech), Dr Walker Inman (Lucid Scientific), Fraser Holleywood (ThermoFisher), Jay Champaneri (Labtech) and Andrew Woods (Caltag Medsystems)

The extensive oxygen gradient between the air we breathe (PO₂ ~21kPa) and its ultimate distribution within tissues, cells and mitochondria (as low as ~0.5 - 1 kPa) is testament to the efforts expended in limiting its inherent toxicity. It has been long been recognised that cell culture undertaken under room air conditions falls short of replicating this protection in vitro. Despite this, difficulty in accurately determining the appropriate O₂ levels in which to culture cells, coupled with a lack of the technology to replicate and maintain a physiological O₂ environment in vitro, has hindered addressing this issue thus far.

This Pharma / Industry Physiological Oxygen Workshop, focused on the importance of physiological oxygen levels in screening of therapeutics in model cell systems, aims to review the current understanding if tissue O₂ distribution in vivo and the attempts made to replicate these conditions in vitro. State-of-the-art techniques employed to accurately determine O₂ levels, as well as the issues associated with reproducing physiological O₂ levels in vitro will be discussed. Overview talks will be followed by hands-on demonstrations in our Physiological Oxygen Laboratory in the King's BHF Centre of Research Excellence.

By providing a framework for researchers to undertake cell culture under O₂ levels relevant to specific tissues and organs, we aim to enable the translation of findings obtained under physiological conditions in vitro to disease pathology and to inform the design and high throughput screening of novel therapeutics.

Supported in-kind by Baker-Ruskinn, BMG Labtech, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Lucid Scientific, BioGenium Microsystems and Caltag Medsystems.