Spatial and Temporal Control of Tissue Growth using DNA Aptamers

The clinical need for improved craniofacial reconstruction materials drives the development of new tissue engineering scaffold materials to alleviate inherent problems with the current best practice, allo- and auto-grafting. Infoscitex, in collaboration with Tufts University and Serica Technologies, presents a novel silk fibroin derived scaffolding material, customizable to many form factors with tunable material properties, coated with cell-specific aptamers to promote selective affixation of mesenchymal stem cells, with the goal of reducing wound healing time and promoting vascularization through the depth of the scaffold. In Phase I, we will isolate aptamers that selectively bind to highly conserved identity regions of mesenchymal stem cells, affix these aptamers to the surface of Serica Technology''s SeriScaffold, and demonstrate in vitro that the treated scaffolds show an increased MSC affinity, viability, proliferation, and differentiation. In Phase II, we will transition to in vivo studies and demonstrate that with the addition of embedded chemokine signals, angiogenesis through the scaffold is enhanced and wound healing is more rapid and complete.