| Project ID |
BPN617 |
| Website |
|
| Start Date |
Wed 2011-Feb-02 16:50:33 |
| Last Updated |
Sat 2011-Feb-05 14:37:55 |
| Abstract |
Cell reprogramming (for example, conversion of skin cells into stem cells) holds great
promise for
regenerative medicine such as replacement-cell therapy and patient-specific drug screening. However,
the efficiency of reprogramming is hampered by poor understanding on the mechanisms. Here we propose
to develop optofluidic controls of cellular communications and molecular imaging of the
reprogramming dynamics in a large scale integrated platform. First, two millions of single stem
cells and fibroblasts can be paired by microfluidic devices. Then, the joined cell membranes can be
transiently fused by optofluidic controls using biomolecular plasmonic optical antennas. The
plasmonic optical excitation will increase the permeability of plasma membrane to allow
transportation of reprogramming factors from stem cells to fibroblasts. Furthermore, the dynamics of
fluorescence-tagged factors are measured in suit by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. Finally,
three dimensional cell images at single molecule resolution are recorded. This platform will provide
a solution to find the pathway of cellular signaling in cell reprogramming with high precision and
can contribute to create optofluidic biological microprocessors for efficient cell reprogramming. |
| Status |
New |
| Funding Source |
|
| IAB Research Area |
Microfluidics |
| Researcher(s) |
Chi-cheng Fu, Erh-Chia Yeh |
| Advisor(s) |
Luke P. Lee |
|
|
