POSTECH News
Generated Cells a Scientific Breakthrough for RNA Therapeutic Research
The research team of Professors Jaesung Park (Department of Mechanical Engineering) and Yong Song Gho (Department of Life Sciences) has developed a way to generate artificial nanovesicles that can be used to deliver RNA, a breakthrough that is expected to be used in exosomes research and to have applications in drug and RNA-delivery systems.
Their paper, "Microfluidic fabrication of cell-derived nanovesicles as endogenous RNA carriers”, made it onto the cover of the journal Lab on a Chip and was selected as a Hot Article.
Exosomes/microvesicles are known to shuttle biological signals between cells. Nonmeter sized exosomes were once considered to be useless. However, the team discovered that nanovesicles contained essential materials for mRNA and proteins. These nanovesicles are now being examined for various therapeutic applications.
Because living cells in nature secrete only a small number of exosomes, the research team has proposed a method to force cells through hydrophilic microchannels to generate artificial nanovesicles. It was discovered that the artificial nanovesicle not only have membrane proteins that are similar to exosomes, but can also transfer cell materials to other cells.
