PFI-TT: Development of artificial substrates for growth of human stem cells suitable for clinical applications

该创新-技术转化伙伴关系（PFI-TT）项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是加速利用人类多能干细胞及其衍生物治疗和治愈疾病的潜在效益。如果成功，该项目将允许在无动物，定义和可重现的条件下培养人类多能干细胞。 这项技术将对推进生物医学科学产生重大影响，因为无动物生长条件将防止在使用来自人类多能干细胞的细胞或器官的移植中引发免疫反应。此外，在特定条件下培养细胞将为从方法学上研究与人体发育以及疾病病理学和治疗相关的问题提供一种新的工具。拟议项目解决了人类多能干细胞体外生长条件不明确和不一致的问题，这些条件也含有动物源污染物。该项目将生产一种合成基质，支持人类多能干细胞在无动物和完全限定的条件下生长。 本项目的研究目标是测试在不影响其性能的情况下对基质进行灭菌的合适方法。其次，还将确定合成底物的保质期。第三，将使用不同的组分复制新基质的性质，最后，将选择性地限定与用新合成基质培养人多能干细胞相关的其他组分。总的来说，目标是进一步改进和创建用于商业化的原型合成基质。如果这项新技术获得成功，将使生物医学科学家能够进一步推进人类多能干细胞的知识和临床应用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to accelerate the potential benefit of using human pluripotent stem cells and their derivatives for treating and curing diseases. If successful, this project will allow the culture of human pluripotent stem cells in conditions that are animal-free, defined, and reproducible. This technology will have a significant impact on advancing biomedical sciences since animal-free growth conditions will prevent triggering immunological responses in transplants using cells or organs derived from the human pluripotent stem cells. In addition, the culture of the cells in defined conditions will provide a new tool needed to methodologically investigate questions related to human body development as well as disease pathology and treatment.The proposed project addresses the problem of undefined and inconsistent conditions for the in vitro growth of human pluripotent stem cells that also contain animal-derived contaminants. This project will produce a synthetic substrate that supports the growth of human pluripotent stem cells in animal-free and fully defined conditions. The research objectives of this project are to test suitable methods for the sterilization of substrates without affecting their properties. Secondly, the shelf-life of the synthetic substrate will be also determined. Third, the properties of the new substrate will be replicated using different components, and finally, other components associated with the culture of human pluripotent stem cells with the new synthetic substrate will be selectively defined. Overall, the goal is to further improve and create a prototype synthetic substrate for commercialization. This new technology, if successful, will allow biomedical scientists to further advance the knowledge and clinical use of human pluripotent stem cells.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.