Stem cell fractionation using interactions with artificial matrices

最近，人们对干细胞的兴趣和潜在的应用激增。它们在治疗性医学应用方面的潜力尤其令人兴奋，真正的前景是生长替代组织和骨骼，以克服各种疾病状况。干细胞在诊断中也有重要的作用，并且已经在药物发现研究中显示出希望。迄今为止，干细胞开发的主要限制是它们的稀缺性。此外，即使有可能获得干细胞，仍然有一项艰巨的任务，即从已分化为不可用类型的细胞中纯化和分类可用细胞。目前，干细胞是用标记物标记的，然后用非常昂贵的仪器逐一分类。尽管现代细胞分选器的速度非常快，但获得的数量相对较少，并且添加了标记试剂，这意味着这些方法不适合干细胞治疗的广泛应用。由于干细胞的稀有性，它们尚未在全球范围内得到应用。该项目建议改变目前的干细胞分选方法，从低通量逐个技术到非常高通量的替代方案，将能够同时分选数百万个细胞。实现这一目标的关键是设计一系列像智能筛子一样的过滤器。干细胞将被注入新的过滤器，这些过滤器将根据细胞的形状、大小、柔韧性和化学特征来识别细胞，而不需要添加任何额外的试剂。将组装一组过滤器；一个叠在另一个上面，以便快速筛选混合物，其中既包含有价值的干细胞，也包含无用的细胞。该研究项目将专注于这些过滤阶段的设计，并使用尖端科学技术来产生一种全新的干细胞纯化方法。诸如微流体、纳米技术、快速微观结构原型等专业技术将与细胞生物化学和细胞生物识别的最新思想相结合，以实现使获取有用干细胞更容易、更便宜和更快的主要目标。对社会的好处将是巨大的，使干细胞治疗的可能性成为每个人的现实。

There has been a recent explosion in interest in and potential applications of stem cells. Their potential for therapeutic medical applications is particularly exciting, with the real prospect of growing replacement tissue and bone to overcome a wide variety of disease conditions. Stem cells also have an important role in diagnostics, and have already shown promise in drug discovery research. To date, the key limitation to the exploitation of stem cells has been their scarcity. Furthermore, even when it is possible to source stem cells, there is still the formidable task of purification and sorting of the usable cells from cells that have differentiated into unusable types. Presently, stem cells are labelled with markers and then sorted one-by-one using very expensive instruments. Despite the very high speed of modern cell sorters the relatively small numbers obtained and the addition of labelling reagents mean that these methods are not suitable for widespread application of stem cell therapy. Stem cells have yet to find global application, because of their rarity. This project proposes to change the current stem cell sorting methods from low throughput one-by-one techniques to very high throughput alternatives that will be capable of sorting millions of cells simultaneously. The key to this will be the design of a series of filters that behave as smart sieves. The stem cells will be poured through new filters that will recognise the cells by their shape, size, flexibility and their chemical signature, without the addition of any extra reagents. A set of filters will be assembled; one on top of the other, to allow rapid screening of a mixture that contains both the valuable wanted stem cells, alongside less useful cells. This research programme will focus on the design of these filter stages, and use cutting edge science and technology to generate a completely new approach to stem cell purification. Specialist techniques such as microfluidics, nanotechnology, rapid microstructure prototyping will be combined with the latest ideas in cell biochemistry and cell biorecognition to fulfil the primary objective of making it easier, cheaper and faster to harvest useful stem cells. The benefit to society will be huge, making the possibility of stem cell therapy a reality for everyone.