This presentation will focus on the interface between nanoscience and stem cell biology. Even though it is well-established that stem cell fate is regulated by interactions that occur between microenvironmental cues and intrinsic cellular programs, our understanding of the function of the microenvironment and gene expression in stem cells is hampered by the limitations of conventional methods and the lack of extensive knowledge of multiple regulatory signals. To this end, the long-term goal of our research program is to develop a bio-inspired platform that can replicate the structure and function on endogenous proteins called transfection factor (TF) proteins, which are responsible for orchestrating overall stem differentiation into specific cell lineages. Our bio-inspired platform called NanoScript, is a nanoparticle-based transcription factor that behaves and function just like natural TF proteins. This NanoScript platform is designed to be gene-specific and can effectively activate targeted gene in a non-toxic and non-viral manner [Figure 1.]. Potentially, this study will not only open the gateway of a more promising approach to treating patients suffering from human patient-derived stem cells, but also establish NanoScript as a new platform to investigate targeted epigenetic modulation that can be useful for effective stem cell differentiations, stem cell-based cell replacement therapies, and cellular reprogramming. In this presentation, a summary of the most updated results from these efforts and future directions will be discussed.

Bio-inspired nanoparticle-based transcription factor to control stem cell fate and function

256th National Meeting (2018)

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