Professor KiBum Lee
Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology
Rutgers University
will speak on
“Bio-inspired Nanotechnology and Chemical Biology Approached for Advanced Stem Cell Therapies”
Abstract:
This presentation will focus on the interface between nanoscience and stem cell biology. Even though it is well established that stem cell fate is regulated by interactions that occur between microenvironmental cues and intrinsic cellular programs, our understanding of the function of the microenvironment and gene expression in stem cells is hampered by the limitations of conventional methods and the lack of extensive knowledge of multiple regulatory signals.
Addressing the aformentioned challenges, the goal of our recent research program is to develop both approaches from nanotechnology—the “top-down” patterning of extracellular matrix (ECM) and signal molecules (e.g. ECM compositions, nanotopography, pattern geometry, and pattern density), and the “bottom-up” synthesis of multifunctional nanoparticles and their surface modification with specific signal molecules, which can be combined synergistically. Our bottom-up approaches mainly focus on the synthesis and utilization of multifunctional nanoparticles as drug and gene delivery vehicles to manipulate the expression of key genes in stem cells and somatic cells for cellular reprogramming. For example, we recently developed combinatorial nanoarrays of hybrid nanostructures using chemically modified graphenes and Biodegradable Hybrid Nanoscaffolds (BHI), which were further utilized to deliver genetic materials into stem cells for controlling their neural-differentiation pathways and neuronal behaviors in vitro and in vivo [Figure 1.].
Friday, March 5, 2021
3:30 pm
Zoom link:
https://clarkson.zoom.us/j/97229541614?pwd=alp2c0pzUDVTWkVkQVEwTjVTT0k5UT09
Meeting ID: 972 2954 1614
Passcode: 048492