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

> **NIH NIH DP1** · OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $736,639

## 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 organization:** OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Daniel Gallego-Perez
- **Activity code:** DP1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $736,639
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-14 → 2022-09-13

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10064911

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10064911, Non-Viral Modulation of Cutaneous Tissue Plasticity as a Therapy for Diabetes (1DP1DK126199-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10064911. Licensed CC0.

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