BIOGRAPHY

Nuclear Reprogramming by Microslits Confined Cytoplasm Fusion [BPN587]
Adult Somatic cells, such as skin cells, from patients can be used to derive induced
pluripotent
stem cells (iPS) by transduction of four Yamanaka transcription factors. Those patient specific iPS
cells, with similar properties to embryonic stem (ES) cells, show great potential on various
applications, such as drug screening and disease modeling. However, in applying this technique to
therapeutic applications such as tissues regeneration, progress is often hampered by low efficiency
(about 0.01 to 0.1%) and slow reprogramming (few weeks). Here, we present a novel way to overcome
this limitation. We designed a micro fluidic chip
with two separate channels which can trap single skin cells and ES cells, respectively. The
micrometer-sized slit between channels allows cell contact and fusion but separates nuclei from each
cell type on different channel. After two days of postfusion, most of somatic cells (70%) will be
derived to iPS cells by reprogramming factors provided by fused ES cells. Finally, reprogrammed
cells can be separated from the fusion entity by
gently closing the slit. Such high cell yield, along with free of gene modification, makes
microslits
confined cytoplasm fusion a potentially useful approach for clinical researches and applications.