BD Discovery Platform

Custom Products and Services for Stem Cells and Cell Biology Research

BD provides custom products and services for cell characterization and defined cell culture environments for customers in drug discovery, cell therapy and cell biology research.  To address the unique challenges and demands for more physiologically relevant cells and for defined cell culture environments, BD’s custom products and services provide researchers with dependable, reproducible tools and products that reduce technical and financial risks and meet their cell culture performance criteria.  BD provides researchers with access to BD’s proprietary Discovery Platform through custom service collaborations to assist in the identification, development and optimization of:

• Cell characterization and analysis tools
• Defined media formulations for maintenance, expansion and differentiation
• Physiologically relevant cell-based assays for drug discovery
• Defined culture environments for cell therapy
• Enhanced production of proteins from mammalian cells

To meet customers’ requirements for serum-free and defined cell culture environments, as well as for more physiologically relevant cells, BD’s custom products and services are designed to deliver solutions to meet research challenges faster and more cost effectively. BD’s tools include:

• The Discovery Platform – An advanced combinatorial screening platform that integrates BD’s proprietary bioinformatics tools, automation and know-how to enable rapid rational screening of large numbers of combinations of biological factors for development of cell culture environments for drug discovery, cell therapy and cell biology research applications.

BD’s custom products and services are offered on a fee-for-service basis. Project complexity will determine price structure and timelines. The custom products and services portfolio is tailored to deliver consistent, reliable results yet flexible enough to meet the needs of a broad spectrum of customers including pharmaceutical, biotech, cell therapy and research institutes.

Working With the Discovery Platform Team
BD’s service begins with a Discovery Platform customer questionnaire to provide us with the necessary information to understand your unmet cell characterization and cell culture needs. The answers to these questions help us formulate the work-plan, project milestones, success criteria and timelines and give you realistic expectations of the outcomes and costs.  Prior to the start of the project, BD will require proper regulatory compliance documentation for services that involve working with human cells. This includes any special instructions and safe handling protocols for specific cell types.

The diagram below illustrates the process steps of a typical custom services project involving the Discovery Platform.

   Custom Products and Services Development Process

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