Method for encapsulating biologically active material including cells

Abstract

Method for encapsulating biologically active material within a semipermeable capsule wherein gelled beads are obtained by suspending the material in a solution of a water-soluble substance which can be reversibly gelled, forming the solution into droplets and gelling the droplets to produce discrete shaped-retaining temporary gelled beads. The improvement comprises the subsequent steps of (a) suspending the gelled beads in a solution of a water-soluble substance which can be reversibly gelled (b) forming droplets from the suspension of (a), thereby obtaining droplets which contain one or more gelled beads of step (a); (c) gelling the droplets of step (b) to produce discrete shaped-retaining temporary gelled beads which contain the gelled beads of step (a); (d) forming semi-permeable membranes on each of the gelled beads of step (c), thereby preventing the incorporation of any biologically active material of step (a) into the membranes and (e) reliquifying the gel within the membranes, thereby dispersing the content of the gelled beads of step (a) within the capsule.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.