Scientists' Comments About Our Organoid-Related Workflow Solutions
“Our research is greatly facilitated by Bio-Techne products. The various organoid systems and co-cultures are all performed in or on R&D Systems Cultrex Reduced Growth Factor BME with great results. Even for more exotic organoids, such as snake venom gland organoids, we could achieve breakthroughs with R&D Systems growth factors and BME as well as spatial visualization of toxin transcripts using ACD’s RNAScope.”
Jens Puschhof | Hans Clevers Lab | Hubrecht Institute, The Netherlands
“We used a range of products from Bio-Techne in this study. iPSCs were directed to form human intestinal organoids using noggin, EGF and CHIR99021 from R&D Systems and Tocris and these consistently generated high quality organoids. Despite limited experience with in situ hybridization, we were able to visualize LGR5 and WDR43 with relative ease using probes and reagents from ACD.”
Dr. Robert Barrett | Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, CA, USA
“One of the key features of organoids in general is the defined media that we use. This allows us to tailor the in vitro niche environment to the specific cells we are growing or to the cells that we are trying to generate in culture. This has been made possible, in part, through the use of a wide range of different growth factors and small molecules from R&D Systems and Tocris. We also used Cultrex for all of the organoids in this study.”
Dr. Tayla Dayton | Hans Clevers Lab | Hubrecht Institute, The Netherlands
“We utilize organoids as powerful research tools to study the underlying regulation of stem cells and cancer and to develop innovative strategies for regenerative medicine. We cultured these 3D organoids in the lab using the R&D Systems CultrexTM Reduced Growth Factor BME, which gave very consistent and reliable results. Other R&D Systems reagents such as growth factors and ACD’s RNAScopeTM technology have all contributed significantly to our findings.”
Dr. Vivian Li | Crick Institute, London, UK
“I have been using R&D/ Bio-Techne products for the last, maybe, 20 years. So ever since I was a graduate student, my lab would exclusively use R&D products. I've found R&D/ Bio-Techne to be extremely reliable.”
Sunita D'Souza | Director of the Center for Modern Pediatric Diseases | St. Jude's Medical Center
The Organoid Culture Handbook
This handbook highlights some of the notable publications that have used organoids to investigate questions about development, disease, or drug safety. Additionally, it includes recipes and links to the key reagents that our own in-house scientists have used to establish the culture conditions for different types of organoids.
Scientists' Comments about Our Cytokines and Growth Factors
“The Bio-Techne products that we're using, we love, and what we're using are cytokines, growth factors and we have been using them since the beginning. I mean, our core started in 2008 and we really have not changed. The product, the reproducibility has been consistent, and we've seen that everything works, everything is good and now so a lot of the products we buy and we don't lot test and we haven't had issues. Everything has been excellent and has worked beautifully.”
Deborah French| Director of the Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Core | Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania
“We had very good experience with R&D cytokines as well as antibodies. We didn't find any lot-to-lot variation with the cytokines and antibodies so, in general, we're very pleased.”
Wenli Yang | Director of the iPSC Core Facility | University of Pennsylvania
“So in our stem cell core facility, we do a lot of differentiation into different progenies. For all this differentiation we use a number of different cytokines, growth factors and we buy them all from R&D Systems or Tocris.”
Barbara Corneo | Director of the Stem Cell Core Facility | Columbia University Medical School
Optimizing Organoid Culture Conditions Application Note
Establishing and optimizing the appropriate conditions for culturing different types of organoids can be technically challenging. Read this application note to learn about the importance of growth factor bioactivity and reagent consistency for achieving robust, reproducible organoid growth.
Scientists' Comments About Our Cultrex BME Products
“In 2015, we started to evaluate Cultrex BME as an alternative to Matrigel®. At that time, we pursued some rigorous quality control testing comparing Cultrex to Matrigel. And in that, we tested 10 cell lines for over 20 passages through various functional assays, and found it to be an incredibly stable and consistent product. Since that time, we have been lot testing Cultrex BME for individual lot purchases, as we consume that reagent. And we have tested approximately 20 lots of Cultrex BME in that time. Through those 20 lots, not a single one has failed our internal QC paradigm.”
Ken Diffenderfer | Director of the Stem Cell Core Facility | Salk Institute for Biological Studies, CA, USA
Matrigel is a registered trademark of Corning Life Sciences.
“We used Cultrex BME as the matrix for our experiments to support organoid culture with great consistent results. The ACE-2 R&D Systems antibody really helped in our work to assess the expression profile of this receptor in intestinal organoids, and to follow changes upon SARS-CoV2 infection.”
Joep Beumer | Hans Clevers Lab | Hubrecht Institute, The Netherlands
“We found that UltiMatrix could be used for various purposes easily, and being able to modify rigidity of the gel by diluting with medium was especially convenient. When culturing colon and pancreas organoids with UltiMatrix, we couldn’t quantify differences compared to Matrigel® BME. In our hands, the organoids grew equally well. However, overall, we could observe very healthy and well-structured 3D morphology of the organoids in UltiMatrix, and found slightly bigger organoids in UltiMatrix gel than the others. Our overall impression of UltiMatrix is that it can be a very convenient and efficient matrix especially if the dilution factor is optimized depending on organoid type."
Dr. Sangho Lim | Hans Clevers Lab | Hubrecht Institute, The Netherlands
Matrigel is a registered trademark of Corning Life Sciences.
“Ultimatrix is unique in its ability to bead up to form a droplet at even low concentrations. We have found that preparing protein concentrations below 8 mg/mL for other commercial ECMs causes 3-dimensional tissues, such as intestinal organoids, to sink to the plastic leading to differentiation and cell death, while UltiMatrix supports healthy normal growth.”
Michael K. Dame | Associate Director of the Translational Tissue Modeling Institute | Jason Spence Laboratory | University of Michigan, MI, USA
“I have used Bio-Techne Ultimatrix for organoïds research and the results are comparable to the Corning Matrigel® in terms of growth, 3D structure and biomarkers expression. Ultimatrix is really convenient to use, has lower endotoxin, is reproducible lot to lot and is considerably better priced. I fully recommend the use of Ultimatrix for organoïds research."
Organoids Section Team Leader | Drug Discovery | Paris, France
Matrigel is a registered trademark of Corning Life Sciences.
“Cultrex ReadyBME has worked very well for our lab. H9 hESCs (WA09) were grown on Cultrex ReadyBME and was directly compared side-by-side to our normal basement membrane. So far, I’ve grown the cells for more than 5 passages and haven’t observed any changes in proliferation rate, viability, cell morphology or the increased appearance of differentiated cells.”
Dr. Amar M. Singh | University of Georgia
Cultrex Products for Physiologic Cell Culture Guide
Download this guide to explore our range of Cultrex basement membrane extracts and extracellular matrix proteins for 2-D and 3-D tissue culture. Inside you'll find data demonstrating the performance of our different Cultrex BME products, and a summary of our selection of media supplements, growth factors, and small molecules to improve the consistency of your cultures.
Further Reviews from Our Protein Product Pages
Recombinant Human R-Spondin 1 (R&D Systems, Catalog # 4645-RS)
Avg: 4.5/5 stars, 4 reviews
Application: Stem/Immune cell maintenance or differentiation
“Stable product when used as described; produces repeatable results for differentiation.”
Recombinant Human Wnt-3a (R&D Systems, Catalog # 5036-WN)
Avg: 4.6/5 stars, 17 reviews
Application: In vitro bioactivity in cell culture
“This protein (200 ng/mL) works well for activating Wnt signaling as shown by Topflash luciferase activity.”
“I have used Wnt-3a routinely to stimulate primary cells in culture. I have obtained consistent results with reproducible data.”
Application: Media additive for protein or antibody production
“This protein works very well for activating Wnt signaling as shown by beta-Catenin expression.”
Recombinant Human/Mouse Rat BMP-2 (R&D Systems, Catalog # 355-BM)
Avg: 4.8/5 stars, 9 reviews
Application: In vitro bioactivity in cell culture
“Another great product made by R&D Systems. Always produces consistent and reliable results. Great as a control.”
Recombinant Human BMP-4 (R&D Systems, Catalog # 314-BP)
Avg: 4.9/5 stars, 8 reviews
Application: Stem/Immune cell maintenance or differentiation
“Robust response in our differentiation; stable and repeatable results when used as described.”
Application: In vitro bioactivity in cell culture
“The product worked really well and it was easy to handle.”
Recombinant Human EGF (R&D Systems, Catalog # 236-EG)
Avg: 4.8/5 stars, 21 reviews
Application: Stem/Immune cell maintenance or differentiation
“Performed well on differentiating iPSCs into neurons.”
“Tested with the same application on different species and the result is always excellent.”
Related Organoid and Stem Cell Resources
Organoid and 3-D Cell Culture Products
Organoid and 3-D Cell Culture Products
Explore our complete range of products designed to promote robust organoid growth, while maintaining consistent, reproducible culture conditions. We provide basement membrane extracts, including our NEW Cultrex™ UltiMatrix RGF Basement Membrane Extract, along with growth factors, small molecules, media, and media supplements.
Recombinant Proteins for Organoid Culture
Recombinant Proteins for Organoid Culture
Some of the most important components of organoid media are growth factors, which need to display high levels of activity and lot-to-lot consistency to support robust, reproducible organoid growth. We offer a wide selection of R&D Systems proteins that are commonly used for organoid culture, including even the most difficult to express and purify proteins such as R-Spondins, Noggin, and Wnt-3a.
Cultrex™ Basement Membrane Extracts and Extracellular Matrix Proteins
Cultrex™ Basement Membrane Extracts and Extracellular Matrix Proteins
Physiologic cell culture depends on the establishment of in vitro conditions that mimic in vivo tissue microenvironments. To accomplish this, we offer several unique types of Basement Membrane Extract (BME) matrices containing different compositions of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins that are designed for specific 2-D and 3-D cell culture applications.
Stem Cells Research Area
Stem Cells Research Area
Minimize variability in your stem cell experiments and ensure high performance by using our stem cell culture reagents. From isolation and culture to verification, reprogramming, differentiation, and characterization, we have the products that you need for your stem cell work.
Proteins for Stem Cell Culture
Proteins for Stem Cell Culture
Optimize your stem cell cultures with R&D Systems™ cytokines and growth factors. Our proteins provide high levels of bioactivity and lot-to-lot consistency so you can be confident in their ability to promote robust stem cell expansion and differentiation with minimal variability between cultures.
Cell Culture Reagents
Cell Culture Reagents
Browse our collection of products for cell culture. We offer a comprehensive range of reagents to promote robust cell growth, including media and supplements, basement membrane extracts, recombinant proteins, and custom cell culture services.