Non-Viral Modulation of Cutaneous Tissue Plasticity as a Therapy for Diabetes

NIH RePORTER · NIH · DP1 · $736,639 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY In vivo reprogramming has the potential to facilitate the development of highly promising and translational personalized cell therapies for a wide variety of conditions. Current reprogramming methodologies, however, face major practical and translational hurdles, including heavy reliance on viral transfection, and a highly stochastic nature, which often leads to inefficient and/or unpredictable reprogramming outcomes. We developed a novel nanotechnology-based approach that overcomes these barriers by enabling deterministic transduction of reprogramming factors into tissues with single-cell resolution and without the need for viral vectors. Tissue Nano-Transfection (TNT) promotes remarkably fast and efficient direct cellular reprogramming in vivo. Such platform technology could be applicable to virtually any reprogramming model, and its non-invasive and non- viral nature make it an ideal candidate for use in highly complex disease systems, such as diabetes. This application will focus on developing TNT-driven strategies to enable paradigm-shifting cell therapies for diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic disorders; by “repurposing” portions of the skin to serve a therapeutic purpose (e.g., sense glucose and release insulin accordingly). As such, the work proposed herein is fundamentally innovative and potentially transformative.

Key facts

NIH application ID
10064911
Project number
1DP1DK126199-01
Recipient
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
Principal Investigator
Daniel Gallego-Perez
Activity code
DP1
Funding institute
NIH
Fiscal year
2020
Award amount
$736,639
Award type
1
Project period
2020-09-14 → 2022-09-13