The development of artificial cell membrane binding proteins

心脏病发作时，心脏的肌肉会因为缺氧而受损。不幸的是，身体很难修复这种损伤，这会削弱心脏，并增加随后发生心力衰竭的机会。修复这种损伤的一种令人兴奋的新方法是向周围区域注入干细胞，以帮助修复损伤。然而，到目前为止，医学试验的结果充其量也是温和的。这在一定程度上是因为很难让细胞留在受损组织的区域。因此，在CytoSeek，我们正在开发一种新技术，使细胞能够修复心脏中受损的组织，这将极大地提高细胞治疗的效果。这一过程包括用一种特殊的设计蛋白给患者自己的细胞“涂抹”，使细胞能够识别并结合到受损组织上，并帮助再生。

During a heart attack, muscles in the heart suffer damage because of the loss of oxygen. Unfortunately, it is very difficult for the body to repair this damage, which weakens the heart and increases the chance of subsequent heart failure. An exciting new approach to repair this damage involves injecting stem cells into the surrounding areas to help repair the damage. However, results from medical trials have so far been modest at best. This is in part due to the difficulty in getting the cells to remain in the region of the damaged tissue. Accordingly, at CytoSeek, we are developing a new technology that enables cells to home to damaged tissue in the heart, which should drastically increase the efficacy of cell therapy. The process involves "painting" the patient’s own cells with a special designer protein that enables the cells to recognise and bind to the damaged tissue and assist the regeneration.