Stem cells continue to play a prominent role in the medical field due to its self renewal and multiple lineage capability. The behavior of stem cells is governed by complex physical and chemical environmental factors, thus by understanding stem cell responses to these parameters will enable control over its fate, ultimately resulting in effective regeneration and treatment of diseased tissues. Since stem cells respond to a vast number of potential environmental factors, an efficient way to monitor the cellular behavior is to use high throughput screening (HTS) platforms with a combination of precisely positioned instructive parameters. While a number of HTS platforms have been developed and successfully applied for cell screening, a HTS platform that can address a combination of nanometer scale spatial and chemical control combined with stem cell assays is yet to be developed.
The 3 year project is funded by The Danish Council for Independent Research - Technology and Production Sciences (FTP). The project is conducted at iNANO, Aarhus University, in collaboration with the group of Profs. Morgan Alexander and Martyn Davies at The Laboratory of Biophysics and Surface Analysis (LBSA), University of Nottingham, UK.
The focus of the project is to develop a new type of HTS platform called ‘CoNPaCT’ (Combinatorial Nanoscale Patterned Chemical Template) for screening stem cell-chemical group interactions. The CoNPaCT, a combinatorial library consisting of nanometer scale chemical patterns will be fabricated using low cost methods and will be optimized for long term stability under cell culture conditions. The chemical pattern integrity of the CoNPaCT and the fate of the stem cells on the template will be characterized via HTS material and cell characterization methods, rapidly confirming the pattern integrity and identifying critical chemical parameters. The project will generate a fundamental chemical HTS tool and elucidate detailed information essential for steering stem cell fate, adding significant knowledge in the field of stem cell research for improving the quality of life.
