Gallego-Perez Lab featured in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News article

Posted: March 23, 2021

The Gallego-Perez Nanomedicine Lab was recently featured in Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News as part of a feature story regarding a recent publication. The research, entitled "Nanotransfection-based vasculogenic cell reprogramming drives functional recovery in a mouse model of ischemic stroke", features work performed by members of the Nanomedicine Lab, as led by graduate student Luke Lemmerman. The paper explores the potential of using nanoelectroporation-based methods to deliver vasculogenic plasmid DNA to fibroblast to potentiate their transition to vasculogenic cells. These cells, when administered in vivo, showed remarkable potentiation of the ischemic microenvironment to form new vascular tissue and re-perfuse the infarcted region of the brain following ischemic stroke.

The article from Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News features an article on the potential impact of such research, as well as a video higlighting the researchers involved in the project. Per the article, "Stroke is the second leading cause of death worldwide, and those patients who do survive often have irreversible brain damage resulting in paralysis, speech impairment, and loss of motor function... No treatments exist to address the lasting and debilitating damage to brain tissue caused by stroke... The newly reported approach created by Ohio State researchers uses TNT to introduce a key set of genes into skin cells, which then drive direct reprogramming of the cells into vascular cells. 'Recently, we reported on a simple-to-implement, nanotransfection-based approach to nonviral cell and tissue reprogramming,' they explained. For their mouse studies, the team pre-conditioned the cells by introducing a cocktail containing the developmental transcription factor genes Etv2, Roxc2, and Fli1 (collectively, EFF) and injected the cells back into the stroke-affected brains, where they triggered the formation of new blood vessels to deliver blood supply to the tissue and help to repair damage."

The research article was published in Science Advances, hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in March of 2021.