Description:
Reference #: 01436
The University of South Carolina is offering licensing opportunities for Temperature Responsive Cell Culture Platform for Mechanobiological Manipulation
Background:
The invention pertains to a swellable platform with surface microwells of various shapes that can encapsulate and systematically apply mechanical pressure on cells. The swellable platform is created by a temperature-responsive polymer, where its temperature determines its degree of swelling. The mechanical pressure can serve two main purposes: the first being to create transient holes in the cell membrane allowing either intracellular delivery of targeted agents or excretion of intracellular components; the second being to mechanically-stimulate cells for specified durations.
Invention Description:
The platform can be used as a method for gene transfection. The platform can induce rapid mechanical deformation on single cells in order create transient holes in the cell membrane allowing increased diffusion through the membrane. Genetic material can enter the cell via diffusion. Transfection is most performed to express a protein of interest in cultured cells (or an animal model) using a plasmid vector or mRNA. Expression of the protein in eukaryotic cells allows the recombinant protein to be produced with proper folding and post-translational modifications required for its function. Further, introducing proteins with readily detectable markers and other modifications into cells allows the study of promoter and enhancer sequences or protein to protein interactions.
Potential Applications:
Transfection can be used in various forms of bioproduction depending upon the transfection strategy. For example, delivery of reprogramming transcription factors enables the generation of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC). Stable transfection, on the other hand, provides the means for the bioproduction of various therapeutic molecules. The temperature responsive cell culture platform can be used to rapidly screen drug panels on various cell type with mechanical cell deformation allowing increased drug uptake.
Advantages and Benefits:
The following applications by mechanical pressure, which can be accomplished with this invention, are highly sought after as they pertain to potential therapeutic or diagnostic benefit. The first is High-throughput delivery/transport of biological (i.e. DNA, RNA, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, cytokines, chemokines, natural compounds) or non-biological agents (i.e. nanoparticles, quantum dots, synthetic compounds) into the encapsulated cells, cell clusters, cell spheroids, or organoids. The second application is Increased secretion of cellular/biological agents (i.e. DNA, RNA, proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, cytokines, chemokines) from encapsulated cells, cell clusters, cell spheroids, or organoids for characterization/diagnosis or intracellular signaling in cocultures. The third application is Mechanical pressure on encapsulated cells, cell clusters, cell spheroids, or organoids in order to assess and correlate cellular response/properties (i.e. membrane mechanics, organelle colocalization) for cellular diagnosis. The last application is Sustained or cyclical mechanical pressure on encapsulated cells, cell clusters, cell spheroids, or organoids in order to engineer the cells, cell clusters, cell spheroids, or organoids including inducing cellular differentiation, cellular maturation, or alterations in phenotypic expressions.