Engineering pluripotent stem cells with synthetic biology for regenerative medicine.
Yihuan MaoSiqi WangJiazhen YuWei LiPublished in: Medical review (2021) (2024)
Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), characterized by self-renewal and capacity of differentiating into three germ layers, are the programmable building blocks of life. PSC-derived cells and multicellular systems, particularly organoids, exhibit great potential for regenerative medicine. However, this field is still in its infancy, partly due to limited strategies to robustly and precisely control stem cell behaviors, which are tightly regulated by inner gene regulatory networks in response to stimuli from the extracellular environment. Synthetic receptors and genetic circuits are powerful tools to customize the cellular sense-and-response process, suggesting their underlying roles in precise control of cell fate decision and function reconstruction. Herein, we review the progress and challenges needed to be overcome in the fields of PSC-based cell therapy and multicellular system generation, respectively. Furthermore, we summarize several well-established synthetic biology tools and their applications in PSC engineering. Finally, we highlight the challenges and perspectives of harnessing synthetic biology to PSC engineering for regenerative medicine.
Keyphrases
- pluripotent stem cells
- cell therapy
- stem cells
- cell fate
- induced apoptosis
- mesenchymal stem cells
- genome wide
- cell cycle arrest
- magnetic resonance imaging
- gene expression
- risk assessment
- body mass index
- big data
- cell death
- decision making
- cell proliferation
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- climate change
- bone marrow
- artificial intelligence
- human health