A Generous Donation from Debbie

CIKA was recently the beneficiary of a generous donation from Debbie, which was used to purchase an octo dissociator to aid in the extraction of individual cells from tissue stored in the Children’s Cancer Centre Biobank.  After the device was installed, Debbie was hosted at the CCC where Elena Fernandez demonstrated it in use and Louise Ludlow explained how its efficiency and precision resulted in a considerable saving in time.  Thank you Debbie, we are very grateful for your donation.  We also appreciate Elena and Louise being willing to give up their time to demonstrate the machine and explain its use.  Thank you.

Here is Louise’s explanation.  “The Children’s Cancer Centre Biobank uses a manual method to process solid and brain tumours.  We finely mince the tumour tissue using scalpel blades then pass the mince through a sieve to generate single cells, a method established over ten years ago. Since this time, techniques for tissue processing have improved and the downstream uses of the prepared cells have become increasingly technical, requiring more refined processing.  After investigation and communication with our collaborators and key stakeholders and, with funds from CIKA, we have purchased a gentleMACS™ Octo Dissociator from Miltenyi Biotec.  https://www.miltenyibiotec.com/AU-en/products/gentlemacs-octo-dissociator-with-heaters.html

“This is a benchtop instrument for semi-automated and standardised tissue dissociation to prepare single-cell suspensions for cryopreservation and to establish tumour models. This unit now allows superior processing of solid and brain tumours for storage in the Biobank and distribution to research groups within Australia and overseas.  It is a huge improvement in technology and sample integrity only made possible by generous funding from CIKA.”