Assay-Ready Cell Plating & Single-Lot Assay Banks
Cells delivered plated, or a single-lot bank aliquoted for a whole campaign — separating the three different products sold under one phrase.
| Category | Contract Cell Culture & Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Unit | One plated plate, or one single-lot assay-ready bank of a stated vial count aliquoted to a stated cell number |
| Lead time | Frozen assay-ready vials ship on catalogue lead times; single-lot banks and live plated deliveries run on scheduled production, so weeks to months with fixed delivery windows |
| Pricing | By quotation |
| Provenance | Partner manufactured |
| Data current | 2026-09-01 |
Description
'Assay-ready' means three different things and knowing which one you are buying is the whole decision. Assay-ready CELLS are a cryovial optimised so cells are usable within hours of thaw — a mature, well-specified category. Ncardia's Ncyte Plate-Ready vCardiomyocytes are the standard to hold anything to: greater than or equal to 70 percent cTnT-positive by flow cytometry, cTnT/MLC2v/Actinin-2 by ICC, MEA functional QC against dofetilide, nifedipine and isoproterenol, mycoplasma, published donor and HLA type, non-viral reprogramming, visible beating clusters within 48 hours of seeding, shipped in a dry shipper at -180 to -135 C. Assay-ready BANKS are a large single-lot expansion aliquoted for an entire campaign — ABS Bio states up to 1,000 vials per batch — and this is the quietly useful and under-bought product, because it removes passage and lot drift without removing plating labour. Assay-ready PLATES, meaning cells already adherent on arrival, barely exist outside fixed-format tissue products such as MIMETAS OrganoReady, and are a contract engagement rather than a catalogue item. The evidence that the gap is closable rather than fictional is a published transport experiment in which a plated, electrically active human neuronal network was recorded at day 49 pre-transport, again at day 50 after 33 hours of transit, and gave a pharmacological response to 4-AP at day 51. We size the in-house comparison honestly before taking a specification anywhere, because the failure-rate term is what decides the answer and it is the term buyers leave out — a 30 percent failure rate does not add 30 percent to cost, it adds 43 percent.
Why this is hard to buy today
Vendors use one phrase for three products, so a buyer who needs a plate with cells already growing in it orders 'assay-ready cells' and receives a cryovial — and outside fixed-format products such as OrganoReady, the plate version is a contract engagement with no part number, which is why the correct next question is always 'ready by what criterion, measured how, on what day'.
Price evidence
No provider surveyed publishes a price for a plating service or for a custom assay-ready bank, so this is quote only and we do not estimate a premium. The only published empty-versus-assay-ready pair we could find is AIM Biotech's, live store API 2026-09-01, and it is the right order-of-magnitude anchor for what pre-seeding costs: idenTx 40 Plate empty at $444.00 per plate against AngioPrime, the same plate pre-loaded with hTERT-immortalised HUVECs on a 3D collagen interface, at $1,470.00 — an uplift of $1,026.00 or 231 percent, which on a 40-chip plate is $25.65 per chip; the 2-plate AngioPrime SKU is $2,688.00 ($1,344.00 each). Catalogue assay-ready vials carry their own public prices at their suppliers; the plating service does not.
These are supplier list prices we located and recorded, not a quotation from Wetware World. Your price depends on quantity, specification and freight, and is only binding once issued in writing.
What you must specify
A quote cannot be produced without these. Anything you leave open, a supplier will assume — usually expensively.
| # | Parameter |
|---|---|
| 01 | Which product is required: assay-ready cells, a single-lot assay-ready bank, or plated cells |
| 02 | Plate format and manufacturer part number (96-well black-walled clear-bottom is not 96-well white, and MEA plates are different again) |
| 03 | Coating chemistry, concentration and age at seeding |
| 04 | Cells per well, and whether droplet or distributed seeding |
| 05 | Co-culture composition and ratio, if any (glia are usually required for neuronal work and usually omitted from the quote) |
| 06 | Media, supplements and feed schedule up to delivery |
| 07 | Day of delivery relative to seeding — the difference between an adherent monolayer and a mature network |
| 08 | Live or frozen, with the acceptance test defined for each |
| 09 | Acceptance criterion on arrival: viability, confluence or function, with a threshold and a measurement window |
| 10 | Number of plates or vials and the delivery cadence |
| 11 | Who bears transit loss on a live shipment |
Quality documentation
Typically available with this item. What actually ships is confirmed on the quotation, per supplier.
- Supplier certificate of analysis with cell count and viability
- Purity by marker with a stated method and threshold (Ncardia publishes >=70% cTnT+ by flow cytometry as a product specification)
- Mycoplasma testing
- Functional QC where the supplier offers it (Ncardia publishes MEA response to dofetilide, nifedipine and isoproterenol)
- Agreed arrival acceptance test, without which a marginal plate becomes an argument rather than a claim
Candidate suppliers
Organisations we have identified as capable. Listing does not imply a partnership, an endorsement, or that they have agreed to quote.
| Organisation | Basis for inclusion |
|---|---|
| Ncardia | Publishes the most concrete assay-ready specification found: >=1M and >=4M viable cells at thaw, >=70% cTnT+ by flow cytometry, ICC panel, MEA functional QC with three named compounds, mycoplasma, donor and HLA type, non-viral reprogramming, beating clusters within 48 hours, shipped in a dry shipper at -180 to -135 C. Catalogue with quote for larger volumes or custom models. |
| ATCC (ThawReady) | Publishes assay-ready cryopreserved cells usable within hours of thawing, in multiple pack sizes with reporter options, and states low intra-lot and inter-lot variation. Catalogue pricing on the ATCC store; vial-based, not plate-based. |
| MIMETAS (OrganoReady) | Perfused tissue models pre-formed by the vendor in the OrganoPlate and shipped live and ready to use — the clearest existing example of a genuine assay-ready plate. BBB HBMEC, blood vessel HUVEC and angiogenesis HUVEC models. No published price. |
| ABS Bio | States assay-ready banks up to 1,000 vials per batch, plate-format culture, and end products including cryopreserved cells, pellets, fixed cells and live cells, across more than 5,000 unique lines cultured to date. Quote only. |
| Ricoh Biosciences / Elixirgen | Published transport experiment: a plated, electrically active MEA plate shipped internationally with baseline network bursting recorded at day 49, again after 33 hours of transit at day 50, and a 4-AP pharmacological response at day 51. Not a catalogue plating service, but the strongest published evidence that live plates survive transport. |
Sources
- https://www.ncardia.com/cell-supply/ncyte-plate-ready-vcardiomyocytes
- https://www.atcc.org/cell-products/cell-models/assay-ready-cells
- https://www.mimetas.com/en/organoready/
- https://absbio.com/cell-culture-services/
- https://biosciences.ricoh.com/product/quick-neurontm-excitatory-human-ipsc-derived-neurons-healthy-control-standard-ex-sev-cw50065/
- https://aimbiotech.com/identx-products
doc WW-CC-24070 · rev 2026-09-01 · research use only · prices indicative and not binding until quoted in writing