An ordinary polystyrene petri dish on the market costs only one yuan, but Qingdao Jindian Biochemical Equipment Co., Ltd.'s petri dishes using coating technology sell for more than 55 yuan. Turning humble products into high-tech and high-value-added products, the secret of Jindian lies in continuous innovation and upgrading.

Founded in 1992, Jindian is committed to the R&D, manufacturing and sales of disposable medical supplies for hospitals and laboratories. It is the first domestic manufacturer with a complete series of petri dishes and the only domestic petri dish manufacturer that masters coating technology. After more than 20 years of development, Jindian's culture dish products have applied independently developed chemical gas deposition plasma and polymer wet coating technologies to develop advanced adherent cell culture dishes and low cell attachment suspension culture dishes, which have reached Leading the country and moving towards the international advanced level.

Petri dish capable of growing cells

The field of life sciences is developing at a rapid pace, and the strategic position of biotechnology in leading future economic and social development has become increasingly prominent. The study of biotechnology, from viruses, bacteria, plants, animals to human genetic research, is inseparable from various large and small vehicles. So, don’t underestimate these bottles and jars. "In the past, observing cell activities and structures under a microscope took no more than four days at most. Now the suspension cell culture dishes we produce can keep cells in them for a long time to cultivate and grow, and there is no problem in growing them for twenty-five or six days. In addition, we produce similar Collagen culture dishes can allow some cells that are difficult to cultivate to grow in them, which is a leap forward." said Zhai Daiqing, general manager of Jindian Company.

In medical experiments, when studying the effects of drugs on cancer cells, the smaller the dose, the better the effect. Most ordinary culture dishes are adherent growth culture dishes. Jindian has overcome this problem by making culture dishes into two categories: adherent and suspended, and using coating technology to make cell suspension culture longer. Among them, the culture dish used to suspend cells can make the cells fully affected by the drug, and more accurately reflect the impact of the drug dosage on the cells. There is currently no other manufacturer in China that can produce this product, which is comparable to the products of the global giant Corning Company of the United States. More than that, Jindian continues to overcome industry problems and seize the commanding heights. At present, the first generation of cell culture, liver and kidney cell culture, endothelial cell and neovascular cell culture, neural cell culture and stem cell differentiation culture, requires the use of collagen layer connexin, polylysine and other coated culture dishes. In addition to mastering this wet coating technology, Jindian also breaks out of the traditional framework and uses chemical gas deposition plasma technology to coat collagen-like materials on the surface of petri dishes. Compared with collagen petri dishes, Jindian is an advanced product. Its function is similar to that of a collagen culture dish, but the materials used do not originate from animals. Its performance is better than that of traditional culture dishes. It has good experimental repeatability and stability, has a long service life and can be stored at room temperature. Its technology has reached the international leading level.

Starting from the simplest petri dish with no technical content, mastering the adherent and suspension coating technology, to pioneering collagen-like coating, and then developing smart petri dishes, Jindian has always adhered to this segmented field, and has carried out projects since 2016 alone. With more than 10 scientific research projects, innovation is the driving force for its continuous upgrading and development. Zhai Daiqing said: "The main business of petri dishes accounts for 70 to 80% of our total business. After mastering the coating technology, all centrifuge tubes, test tubes and the like can be coated, which can better meet the needs of scientific research institutions and hospitals. With the development of biology As technology develops, new process requirements will continue to emerge in the future, and we can keep up."

Build a cell culture factory

The low-end petri dish market has always been fiercely competitive due to low technical content. Jindian's development into the high-end petri dish market has gone through five years of transformation. Relying on forward-looking smart petri dish technology, Zhai Daiqing has a bigger idea. He is not satisfied with just making one product, but wants to open up the entire industrial chain and turn the entire cell culture into an industry, which can be used in the regeneration and repair of damaged tissues in conjunction with hospital surgery centers. This is actually the concept of regenerative medicine.

Zhai Daiqing predicts that there will be big moves within two years. He is currently improving the technology in terms of cost reduction and data stability. Registering patents and related approvals will be rolled out at the same time, and extended to hospitals. The most important application for the market is the regeneration of damaged corneal epithelial tissue. There are currently 4 million patients with corneal blindness in our country, and the number of cases is increasing by more than 100,000 every year. However, the number of corneal transplant surgeries each year is only about 5,000. There is a serious shortage of human donated corneas, and bioengineered corneas may be rejected, resulting in many patients with corneal blindness being unable to receive timely treatment. If corneas can be grown from patients' own cells, this will be a potentially huge market.

Jindian's focus is not only on the domestic market, but also on the broader foreign market. It hopes to become a platform for medical service integration, accept overseas users through convenient transportation conditions, be open to patients and scientific research institutions from all over the world, and realize the transformation and application of clinical scientific research results. "I plan to apply for four to five hundred acres of land. I will make a small attempt first without investing too much, and then continue to expand. There must be a cell culture factory in the first phase, followed by a R&D building and a visiting exchange center. We are responsible for cultivating Under the guidance of cells and teams, transplantation is done by the hospital. Research on stem cell repair and regeneration must also require corresponding vehicles, and that is the future direction," said Zhai Daiqing. "Putting aside interests and standing at a higher level, we are solving the problem of regaining sight for mankind. This is not unattainable and will become a reality in the near future." Speaking of this, Zhai Daiqing's excitement was palpable.

Regenerative medicine has effects on cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, etc. that are difficult to achieve with traditional treatment methods. It also has broad application prospects in plastic surgery and other aspects. Entering the clinical application and industrial development of regenerative medicine will be an uneven but promising road. Jindian relies on basic research to lay out the industrialization chain in advance and looks forward to occupying a place in this huge market in the future.