Cell-Permeable Small Molecules for Regenerative Medicine and Cancer Research
Complete the form below to unlock access to ALL audio articles.
AMSBIO offers a wide range of small molecules to provide scientists with targeted tools to direct cell fates, making them crucial in areas including regenerative medicine and cancer research.
Small molecules are cell-permeable organic compounds with low molecular weights, which are chemically produced, in contrast to larger molecules such as proteins which are often produced via biological means. Small molecules are crucial components of an affordable cell culture toolkit that can be used to maintain, reprogram, and differentiate cells.
Typically, small molecules are cost-effective: rapid and convenient to manufacture with a high level of purity and low batch to batch variation, ensuring consistent activity and reproducible results. Producing larger molecules by biological means such as using viral vectors has the potential to introduce unwanted genetic material. By comparison animal-free small molecules are inherently safe, eliminating this possibility.
Used as tools to manipulate cell fates via the targeting of signaling pathways, small molecules are increasingly being cited in regenerative medicine research: to direct cells down a certain developmental pathway to a desired cell type, to reprogram somatic cells into pluripotent cells and to maintain cells in culture. In cancer research, a wide range of small molecules are being used in targeted cancer therapy, to target the specific genes and proteins in cancer cells that enable them to survive and grow.
