The center has the following expertise and skills that can be shared with collaborators
- Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)
- Genetically engineered hypoimmunogenic hPSCs
- Cardiomyocytes from hPSCs
- Endothelial cells from hPSCs
- Cardiac fibroblasts from hPSCs
- Epicardial cells from hPSCs
- Pancreatic beta cells from hPSCs
- Neural stem cells and neurons from hPSCs
- Placental derived mesenchymal stem cells
- PiggyBac system for inducible expression of any gene with precisely controlled gene expression kinetics
- Modified mRNA (modRNA) for overexpression of any gene
- ModRNA-based Cas9 technology for genome editing
- ModRNA-based Cas12a technology for genome editing
- ModRNA-based Cas13 technology for RNA editing
- ModRNA-based dCas9 or dCas12a for epigenome editing
- Modification of biopolymers (e.g., alginate, DNA, or proteins) with molecules ranging from small chemicals (e.g., fluorophore) to large biomolecules (DNA or protein) using diverse bioconjugation methods
- Preparation of hydrogels (hyaluronic acid, alginate, PEG, collagen) using diverse crosslinking methods.
- Nucleic acid aptamer selection, design, modification
- Development of DNA libraries
- Purification of bioconjugates
- Controlled growth factor release
- Dynamic control of hydrogel mechanical properties
- Effects of stiffness on cell behavior and function (traction force measurement)
- Cell labeling and fluorescence analysis
- Cell surface biomolecular engineering using both chemical and physical methods
- Cell microencapsulation
- Reversible cell separation
- Cell culture in various 3D hydrogels (collagen, hyaluronic acid, alginate, PEG) for disease modeling/tissue engineering/ bioprinting
- Cell culture in commercially available stirred tank bioreactors (form 500 ml to 50L)
- Scalable cell and microtissue production using the unique tube microbioreactors
- Producing 10^8 to 10^10 cells with 0.5 to 20 mL hydrogel tubes (which is 200 times smaller than using current bioreactors) at this moment
- Further scaling up is ongoing
- Mature scaling-up protocols to produce hPSCs, hPSC-derived endothelial cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, cardiomyocytes, neural stem cells, neurons, as well as primary mesenchymal stem cells, T cells at this moment
- On-going efforts of developing protocols for large-scale production of other cell types, viruses and exosomes