This technology is a fibrous cell culture platform with tunable stiffness and surface composition to improve expansion of T-cells and stem cells.
The rigidity and topography of cell culture surfaces have been shown to directly influence cell signaling and phenotype in numerous cell types, including T-cells and stem cells. Yet most cell culture occurs on flat, rigid tissue culture plastic that can be 200-1000x stiffer than native tissue. Thus, there is a need for the development of more physiologically relevant cell culture systems that better mimic native tissue properties to improve modulation of cell behavior in vitro.
This technology describes a fibrous, three-dimensional cell culture platform with customizable topography and rigidity. Scaffolds are fabricated via electrospinning, in which nano-sized fibers are drawn from a polymer solution, and the scaffold can be functionalized with surface proteins to direct cell activity. The polymer chemical composition and electrospinning parameters can be readily adjusted to customize scaffold size, shape, and stiffness, as well as generate biomimetic cell culture surfaces. This technology can be used for studying immune cell activation for research and adoptive therapy applications, as well as for the expansion and differentiation of other cell types, such as stem cells.
Fibrous scaffolds of varying stiffness have been generated using the methods described in this technology, and T-cells cultured on these scaffolds are capable of undergoing proliferation and activation.
IR CU14178
Licensing Contact: Dovina Qu