Use of permeable proteins in defining cell fate in endogenous neural precursor stem cells

干细胞有可能给组织发育和疾病进展提供更多的见解。干细胞由于具有分化为多种细胞系的能力，在组织工程领域得到了广泛的研究。然而，目前用于将干细胞驱动到特定细胞系的方法既具有挑战性又效率低下。此外，细胞的来源是有问题的，因为通常它们要么有重大的伦理问题（例如胎儿组织），要么使用无法停止复制的细胞（例如诱导多能干细胞）。因此，在没有相关伦理或技术问题的情况下，人们对更好地定义和驱动内源性干细胞很感兴趣。该项目结合了Buttigieg博士研究团队和生物技术公司iProgen的专业知识，开发可用于内源性干细胞的细胞渗透性转录因子，从而提高驱动细胞走向特定命运的效率。需要研究的两个因素是SOX2（神经元发育）和Olig2（少突胶质发育）。到目前为止，还没有这种可渗透的蛋白同源物，它们的作用也不完全清楚。在这个试点项目中，iProgen将设计和生产SOX2和Olig2转录因子。然后Buttigieg博士将评估和描述这些蛋白质对内源性干细胞行为的影响。该项目是iProgen与Buttigieg实验室的首次合作。

Stem cells have the potential to give much insight to both tissue development as well as disease progression. Stem cells have been extensively researched in the context of tissue engineering because of their ability to differentiate into multiple cell lines. However, current methods employed to drive stem cells to specific cell lineages are both challenging and inefficient. Additionally, the source of cells is problematic because typically they have either significant ethical issues (e.g. fetal tissue) or use cells that are unable to stop replicating (e.g. inducible pluritpotent stem cells). Thus there is much interest in better defining and driving endogenous stem cells, without associated ethical or technical issues. This project joins the expertise of the Dr. Buttigieg research team as well as that of iProgen, a biotechnology company, to develop cell permeable transcription factors that can be utilized on endogenous stem cells and thus increase the efficiency of driving cells to particular fates. Two factors to be researched are SOX2 (neuron development) and Olig2 (oligodendroglial development). To date, there are no such permeable protein homologues available, nor are their effects known fully. For this pilot project, iProgen will engineer and produce SOX2 and Olig2 transcription factors. Dr. Buttigieg will then evaluate and characterize the effects of these proteins on endogenous stem cell behaviour. This project represents a first time collaboration between iProgen and the Buttigieg laboratory.